GIFT   OF 


\   - 


• 


GEORGE   WASHINGTON. 
[Engraved  by  G   Kruell  from  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart  in  the  Boston  Museum  of  Fine  Arts.] 


A  LARGER  HISTORY 


OF  THE 


UNITED  STATES  OF  AMERICA 


TO  THE   CLOSE  OF 

PRESIDENT    JACKSON'S    ADMINISTRATION 

r>>    J  *-< 

BY 

THOMAS  WENTWORTH  HIGGINSON 

AUTHOR    OF 

"YOUNG  FOLKS'  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES" 


ILLUSTRATED  BY  MAPS,  PLANS,  PORTRAITS,  AND  OTHER  ENGRAVINGS 


NEW     YORK    AND    L  O  N  D  O  N 

HARPER     &      BROTHERS      PUBLISHERS 

1901 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1882.  by 

HARPER     &     BROTHERS, 
TI  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


Copyright,  1885,  by  HARPER  &  BROTHERS, 


All  rights  reserved. 


\f> 


PREFACE. 


IT  is  said  by  Mr.  Conway  that  Carlyle  could  never  quite 
forgive  Shakespeare  for  not  having  written  a  history  of 
England ;  and  it  would  seem  that  every  author,  great  or  small, 
should  do  his  share,  first  or  last,  towards  elucidating  his  own 
country's  annals,  or  at  least  making  them  attractive.  Ever 
since  my  own  humble  contribution  of  this  kind  in  the  "  Young 
Folks'  History  of  the  United  States,"  I  have  been  repeatedly 
urged  by  readers,  and  even  by  parents  and  teachers,  to  tell  the 
story  of  the  nation  over  again  upon  a  much  larger  scale,  but 
on  the  same  general  principles.  This  has  now  been  done,  after 
waiting  long  enough  to  make  sure  of  a  wholly  fresh  treatment 
instead  of  a  mere  amplification. 

If  the  smaller  book  has  met  the  popular  demand,  or  if  this 
work  is  destined  to  excite  any  similar  interest,  it  grows  mainly 
out  of  one  fact — that  the  theme  appears,  and  has  always  ap 
peared  to  me  more  important,  more  varied,  more  picturesque, 
and  more  absorbingly  interesting  than  any  historic  subject 
offered  by  the  world  beside.  I  know  that  in  this  I  seem  to 
oppose  myself  to  some  of  the  most  cultivated  minds  among  my 
fellow-countrymen.  Hawthorne  called  American  history  only  a 
scene  of  "  commonplace  prosperity ;"  Lowell  pronounced  the 
details  of  our  early  annals  to  be  %k  essentially  dry  and  unpoetic." 
Yet  Hawthorne  by  his  prose  and  Lowell  by  his  poetry  have 

86173 


vi  PREFACE. 

done  much  toward  refuting  their  own  charges ;  and  it  seems  to 
me,  at  any  rate,  that  an  American  author  can  render  no  better 
service  than  to  take  up  just  those  despised  details  and  see,  by 
a  fair  test,  whether  any  nation  has  better  material  to  offer. 
Our  profounder  historical  students  are  now  adding  enormous 
ly  to  the  wealth  of  this  kind  of  knowledge ;  and  it  is  the  light 
er  but  not  always  easier  task  of  the  literary  man  to  reduce 
these  accumulations  into  compact  shape,  select  what  is  most 
characteristic,  and  make  the  result  readable.  If  I  have  failed 
in  doing  this,  the  defect  is  not  in  my  subject-matter  but  in  my 
skill. 

My  thanks  are  especially  due,  among  those  learned  masters 
of  whom  I  have  spoken,  to  my  near  neighbors  and  ever  kind 
friends,  Justin  Winsor  and  Charles  Deane ;  and  also  to  a  young 
kinsman  who  is  already  following  in  their  laborious  footsteps — 
Dr.  Edward  Channing,  of  Harvard  University.  I  owe  thanks 
to  the  Century  Company  for  the  liberty  of  reprinting,  with  the 
original  illustrations,  a  chapter  of  this  work  which  was  first 
published  in  their  magazine.  I  am  also  greatly  indebted  for 
the  opportunity  of  photographing  valuable  portraits  to  Dr.  John 
C.  Warren  and  Mrs.  Gardner  Brewer,  of  Boston ;  to  Winslow 
Warren,  Esq.,  of  Dedham,  Mass. ;  to  Hon.  William  C.  Endicott, 
of  Salem,  Mass* ;  to  Mrs.  G.  H.  Pendleton,  of  Cincinnati ;  to 
J.  G.  Rosengarten,  Esq.,  of  Philadelphia;  to  Mrs.  Fisher,  of  Al- 
verthorpe,  Germantown,  Pa.;  to  J.  R.  Bryan,  Esq.,  of  Fredericks- 
burgh,  Va. ;  and  to  the  city  authorities  of  Boston.  To  my  pub 
lishers  I  am  indebted  for  most  of  the  illustrations  of  the  vol 
ume,  and  especially  for  what  is,  if  I  mistake  not,  by  far  the 
finest  series  of  portraits  of  statesmen  yet  seen  in  any  Ameri 
can  book. 


CONTENTS 


CHAP.  PAGE 

I.     THE  FIRST  AMERICANS  ..." r 

II.    THE   VISIT  OF  THE    VIKINGS.    .    • 27 

III.  THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS 52 

IV.  THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN     . 75 

V.    THE  FRENCH   VOYAGEURS 108 

VI.    -AN  ENGLISH  NATION" .137 

VII.     THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR 169 

VIII.  THE     SECOND      GENERATION     OF     ENGLISHMEN     IN 

AMERICA 192 

IX.    THE  BRITISH   YOKE 216 

X.    THE  DAWNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE 241 

XL    THE   GREAT  DECLARATION 265 

XII.    THE  BIRTH  OF  A    NATION 283 

XIII.  OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE 309 

XIV.  THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS 333 

XV.    THE  SECOND    WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE 360 

XVI.    THE  ERA    OF   GOOD  FEELING 381 

XVII.    THE   GREAT   WESTERN  MARCH 406 

XVIII.    -OLD  HICKORY"     . 431 


INDEX 457 


ILLUSTRATIONS 


PAGE 

GEORGE  WASHINGTON Frontispiece 

RUINS  OF  THE  PUEBLO  PINTADO 2 

PLAN  OF  THE  PUEBLO  PINTADO ,3 

RESTORATION  OF  THE  PUEBLO  HUNGO  PAVIE 5 

PLAN  OF  HUNGO  PAVIE 6 

THE  NORTH   PUEBLO  OF  TAGS 8 

RUINED  PUEBLO  AND  CITADEL 9 

HODENOSOTE,  OR  LONG  HOUSE  OF  THE  IROQUOIS 12 

PLAN  OF  IROQUOIS  HOUSE 12 

PLAN  OF  NECHECOLEE  HOUSE 12 

FORTIFIED  VILLAGE  OF  MOUND-BUILDERS,  GROUND-PLAN 14 

FORTIFIED  MANDAN  VILLAGE 15 

FORTIFIED  ONONDAGA  VILLAGE 16 

MORGAN'S  HIGH  BANK  PUEBLO .     .  17 

DIEGO  DE  LANDA'S  MAYA  ALPHABET 18 

COLOSSAL  STATUE  OF  CHAAC-MOL 20 

SCULPTURED  HEAD  OF  YUCATAN 21 

INCENSE-BURNERS  FROM  YUCATAN 22 

FEMALE  FACE  FROM  TOPILA 23 

INDIAN  VASE  FOUND  IN  VERMONT 25 

VIKING'S  WAR  SHIP,  ENGRAVED  ON  ROCK  IN  NORWAY 27 

NORSE  BOAT  UNEARTHED  AT  SANDEFJORD 32 

OLD  NORSE  RUINS  IN  GREENLAND 37 

THE  OLD  MILL  AT  NEWPORT,  R.  1 43 

STONE  WINDMILL  AT  CHESTERTON 44 

THE  DIGHTON  ROCK 45 

THE  MOUNT  HOPE  BAY  INSCRIPTION 46 

HIEROGLYPHICS  ON  ROCK  IN  NEW  MEXICO 46 

HIEROGLYPHICS  ON  INSCRIPTION  ROCK,  NEW  MEXICO 47 


x  ILL  US  TRA  TIONS. 

PAGE 

NORTH  ATLANTIC,  BY  THE  ICELANDER  SIGURD  STEPHANIUS,  IN  1570.     .  50 

CHRISTOPHER  COLUMBUS 53 

THE  VISION  OF  COLUMBUS     .                                                                    .     .  57 

THE  LANDING  AT  GUANAHANI 61 

DA  VINCI'S  MAPPEMONDE 66 

A  CHART  OF  THE  SIXTEENTH  CENTURY  . .     .  67 

VASCO  NUNEZ  DE  BALBOA 68 

PONCE  DE  LEON 71 

SEBASTIAN  CABOT,  BY  HOLBEIN 77 

MAP  OF  SEBASTIAN  CABOT 79 

SIR  JOHN  HAWKINS,  KT 86 

THE  HAWKINS  ARMS 88 

DEFEAT  OF  THE  BRITISH  UNDER  SIR  JOHN  HAWKINS  AT  SAN  JUAN  DE 

ULLOA 89 

SIR  FRANCIS  DRAKE 91 

"THOMAS  MOON  BEGAN  TO  LAY  ABOUT  HIM  WITH  HIS  SWORD"     .     .     .  93 
PART  OF  MAP  OF  DRAKE'S  VOYAGES,  PUBLISHED  BY  J.  HONDIUS  IN  HOL 
LAND   TOWARDS   THE   CLOSE   OF    THE    SIXTEENTH    CENTURY        ....  95 

DRAKE'S  ATTACK  ON  SAN  DOMINGO 99 

THOMAS  CAVENDISH 102 

CAPTURE    OF    THE   "SANTA    ANNA,"    SPANISH    FLAG -SHIP,   BY    CAVEN 
DISH    103 

SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH 105 

JACQUES  CARTIER T  1 1 

JACQUES  CARTIER  SETTING  UP  A  CROSS  AT  GASPE 113 

THE  LANDING  OF  JEAN  RIBAUT 115 

INDIAN  DWELLING  AND  CANOE 117 

INDIANS  DECORATING  RIBAUT'S  PILLAR 118 

DOMINIQUE  DE  GOURGUES  AVENGING  THE  MURDER  OF  THE  HUGUENOT 

COLONY  . 120 

"HE  BROUGHT  BOTH  CATHOLIC  PRIESTS  AND  HUGUENOT  MINISTERS,  WHO 

DISPUTED  HEARTILY  ON  THE  WAY" 121 

SAMUEL  DE  CHAMPLAIN 127 

CHAMPLAIN'S  FORTIFIED  RESIDENCE  AT  QUEBEC 130 

"HE  RESTED  HIS  MUSKET" 132 

ATTACK  ON  AN  IROQUOIS  FORT 134 

CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH 142 

POWHATAN ....  144 

MAP  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND  COAST,  FROM  CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH'S  "  His- 

TORIE  OF  VIRGINIA" 145 


ILL  US  TRA  TIONS.  x  \ 

PAGE 

MAP  OF  JAMESTOWN   SETTLEMENT,  FROM   CAPTAIN  JOHN  SMITH'S  "  His- 

TORIE  OF  VIRGINIA" 148 

ARRIVAL  OF  THE  YOUNG  WOMEN  AT  JAMESTOWN 150 

VISIT  OF  PILGRIMS  TO  THE  SHORE 159 

JOHN  ENDICOTT 161 

JOHN  \VINTHROP 163 

CECIL  CALVERT,  SECOND  LORD  BALTIMORE 166 

DEATH  OF  KING  PHILIP 179 

FAC-SIMILE  FROM  MS.  OF  FATHER  RASLE'S  ABENAKI  GLOSSARY  .     .     .     .186 

SIR  WILLIAM  PEPPERRELL 188 

Louis  JOSEPH  MONTCALM 190 

JAMES  WOLFE 191 

COTTON  MATHER 196 

A  QUAKER  EXHORTER  IN  NEW  ENGLAND 205 

SAMUEL  SEWALL 208 

ARRESTING  A  WITCH 209 

PETER  STUYVESANT  TEARING  THE  LETTER  DEMANDING  THE  SURRENDER 

OF  NEW  YORK 212 

GOVERNOR  ANDROS  AND  THE  BOSTON  PEOPLE 221 

JAMES  OTIS 223 

GENERAL  OGLETHORPE,  FOUNDER  OF  GEORGIA 226 

LORD  CHATHAM 228 

THE  "BOSTON  MASSACRE" 230 

BURNING  OF  THE  "GASPEE" 231 

REV.  EZRA  STILES 232 

PATRICK  HENRY 233 

AN  OUT-OF-DOOR  TEA-PARTY  IN  COLONIAL  NEW  ENGLAND 236 

PAUL  REVERE 243 

LEXINGTON  GREEN. — "!F  THEY  WANT  A  WAR,  LET  IT  BEGIN  HERE"    .     .  246 

DR.  JOSEPH  WARREN 247 

GENERAL  WILLIAM  HEATH 248 

FAC-SIMILE  OF  WARREN'S  ADDRESS 250 

SAMUEL  ADAMS 255 

SERGEANT  JASPER  AT  THE  BATTLE  OF  FORT  MOULTRIE 261 

TRUMBULL'S  "SIGNING  OF  THE  DECLARATION" 266 

JOHN  DICKINSON 270 

HOUSE  IN  WHICH  JEFFERSON  WROTE  THE  DECLARATION,  CORNER  OF  MAR 
KET  AND  SEVENTH  STREETS,  PHILADELPHIA 274 

VIEW  OF  INDEPENDENCE  HALL,  THROUGH  THE  SQUARE 276 

TABLE  AND  CHAIRS  USED  AT  THE  SIGNING  OF  THE  DECLARATION  .     .     .278 


xii  ILLUSTRATIONS. 

PAGE 

TEARING  DOWN  THE  KING'S  ARMS  FROM  ABOVE  THE  DOOR  IN  THE  CHAM 
BER  OF  THE  SUPREME  COURT  ROOM  IN  INDEPENDENCE  HALL,  JULY  8, 

1776 280 

GARDEN-HOUSE,  OWNED  BY  DR.  ENOCH  EDWARDS,  WHERE  JEFFERSON  AND 

OTHERS  CELEBRATED  THE  PASSAGE  OF  THE  DECLARATION 281 

THE  FRENCH  OFFICERS  AT  NEWPORT 290 

GENERAL  SIR  GUY  CARLETON 292 

ELBRIDGE  GERRY ...  299 

FISHER  AMES 301 

SHAYS'S  MOB  IN  POSSESSION  OF  A  COURT-HOUSE 303 

THE  INAUGURATION  OF  WASHINGTON .     .     .  307 

AT  MRS.  WASHINGTON'S  RECEPTION 315 

ALEXANDER  HAMILTON ....317 

MRS.  BINGHAM 323 

MRS.  THEODORE  SEDGWICK 325 

COUNT  FERSEN .  334 

JOHN  ADAMS 337 

ABIGAIL  ADAMS      ....  341 

THOMAS  JEFFERSON 345 

WASHINGTON  IN  1800 ....351 

MERCY  WARREN 353 

AARON  BURR 357 

JAMES  MADISON 363 

IMPRESSMENT  OF  AMERICAN  SEAMEN 367 

FRANCIS  SCOTT  KEY 378 

JAMES  MONROE 385 

HENRY  CLAY ....  391 

JOHN  RANDOLPH 397 

RUFUS  KING 401 

JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS ..-.-.. 409 

MAP  SHOWING  THE   MOVEMENT  OF  THE  CENTRE  OF  POPULATION  WEST 
WARD  ON  THE  THIRTY-NINTH  PARALLEL 416 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN \     .     .     .     .     .....     ...     .     .  425 

ANDREW  JACKSON .    :.  '  . 435 

DANIEL  WEBSTER .     ...........  445 


HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


i. 

THE  FIRST  AMERICANS. 

IT  happened  to  the  writer  more  than  once,  during  the  late 
civil  war,  to  sail  up  some  great  Southern  river  that  was 
to  all  appearance  unfurrowed  by  the  keel  of  man.  If  it  was 
not  the  entrance  to  a  newly  discovered  continent,  it  might  as 
well  have  been.  No  light -house  threw  its  hospitable  gleam 
across  the  dangerous  bar,  no  floating  buoys  marked  the  in 
tricacies  of  the  channel ;  the  lights  had  been  extinguished,  the 
buoys  removed,  and  the  whole  coast  seemed  to  have  gone 
back  hundreds  of  years  in  time,  reverting  to  its  primeval  and 
unexplored  condition.  There  was  commonly  no  sound  except 
the  light  plash  of  waves  or  the  ominous  roll  of  heavy  surf. 
Once  only,  I  remember,  when  at  anchor  in  a  dense  fog  off 
St.  Simon's  Island,  in  Georgia,  I  heard  a  low  continuous  noise 
from  the  unseen  distance,  more  wild  and  desolate  than  any 
thing  else  in  my  memory  can  parallel.  It  came  from  within 
the  vast  girdle  of  mist,  and  seemed  as  if  it  might  be  the  cry 
of  lost  souls  out  of  some  Inferno  of  Dante  ;  yet  it  was  but 
the  sound  of  innumerable  sea-fowl  at  the  entrance  of  the  outer 
bay.  Amid  such  experiences  I  was  for  the  first  time  enabled 
to  picture  to  myself  the  American  Continent  as  its  first  Euro 
pean  visitor  saw  it. 


2  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Lonely  as  the  land  may  have  seemed,  those  early  voyagers 
always  came  upon  the  traces,  ere  long,  of  human  occupants. 
Who  were  those  men  and  women,  what  was  their  origin,  what 


RUINS    OF   THE   PUEBLO    PINTADO. 


their  mode  of  life  ?  Every  one  who  explores  the  mounds  of  the 
Ohio  Valley,  or  gazes  on  the  ruins  of  Yucatan,  or  looks  into 
the  wondrous  narratives  of  the  Spanish  conquerors,  must  ask 
himself  this  question.  Until  within  a  few  years  there  has 
seemed  no  answer  to  it.  Facts  have  come  in  faster  and  faster, 
and  every  new  fact  has  made  the  puzzle  seem  more  hopeless, 
so  long  as  no  one  could  offer  the  solution.  These  various  pre 
historic  races,  so  widely  sundered,  threw  no  light  upon  each 
other;  they  only  deepened  each  other's  darkness.  Indians, 
Aztecs,  Mayas,  Mound -builders,  seemed  to  have  no  common 
origin,  no  visible  analogy  of  life  or  habits.  The  most  skilful 
student  was  hardly  in  advance  of  the  least  skilful  as  to  any 
real  comprehension  of  the  facts;  nor  could  this  possibly  be 
otherwise,  so  long  as  the  clew  to  the  labyrinth  was  not  found. 
It  is  only  some  thirty  years  since  it  may  be  said  to  have 
been  discovered ;  only  some  eight  or  ten  years  since  it  has 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS. 


been  resolutely  and  persistently  used.     Let  us  see  what  results 
it  has  already  yielded. 

When  in  1852  Lieutenant  J.  H.  Simpson,  of  the  United 
States  army,  gave  to  the  world  the  first  detailed  description  of 
the  vast  ruined  pueblos  of  New  Mexico,  and  of  the  other  pueb 
los  still  occupied,  he  did  not  know  that  he  was  providing  the 
means  for  rewriting  all  the  picturesque  tales  of  the  early  con 
querors.  All  their  legends  of  cisatlantic  emperors  and  em- 


PUEBLO  PlXTADO, 

Chaco  Cation, 

N.M. 

10  20  30  40  50  60  70  80  90100 
SCALE  OF  100  FEET 


INSIDE  OF  THIS  COURT  FULL  OF 
DEPRESSIONS,  AS  IF  A  NUMBER  OF 
UNDER-GROUND  ROOMS  ONCE  EXISTED  \     \\ 


PLAN   OF  THE   PUEBLO   PINTADO. 


pires  were  to  be  read  anew  in  the  light  of  that  one  discovery. 
These  romances  had  been  told  in  good  faith,  or  something  as 
near  it  as  the  narrator  knew,  and  the  tales  had  passed  from 


4  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES, 

one  to  another,  each  building  on  what  his  predecessor  had  laid 
down.  The  accounts  were  accepted  with  little  critical  revision 
by  modern  writers ;  they  filled  the  attractive  pages  of  Prescott ; 
even  Hubert  Bancroft  did  not  greatly  modify  them;  but  the 
unshrinking  light  of  a  new  theory  was  to  raise  questions  as  to 
them  all.  And  with  them  were  to  be  linked  also  Stephens's 
dreams  of  vast  cities,  once  occupied  by  an  immense  popula 
tion,  and  now  remaining  only  as  unexplored  ruins  amid  the 
forests  of  Central  America.  The  facts  he  saw  were  confirmed, 
but  his  impressions  must  be  tested  by  a  wholly  new  interpre 
tation.  And,  after  all,  these  various  wonders  were  only  to  be 
exchanged  for  new  marvels,  as  interesting  as  the  old  ones,  and 
more  intelligible  and  coherent. 

From  the  publication  of  Lewis  H.  Morgan's  remarkable  es 
say,  entitled  "  Montezuma's  Dinner,"  in  the  North  American 
Review  for  April,  1876,  the  new  interpretation  took  a  definite 
form.  The  vast  accumulation  of  facts  in  regard  to  the  early 
American  races  then  began  to  be  classified  and  simplified ;  and 
with  whatever  difference  of  opinion  as  to  details,  the  general 
opinion  of  scholars  now  inclines  to  the  view  which,  when  Mor 
gan  first  urged  it,  was  called  startling  and  incredible.  That 
view  is  still  a  theory,  as  Darwin's  "  origin  of  species  "  is  still  a 
theory;  but  Morgan's  speculations,  like  Darwin's,  have  begun 
a  new  era  for  the  science  to  which  they  relate.  He  holds  that 
there  never  was  a  prehistoric  American  civilization,  properly 
so  called,  but  only  an  advanced  and  wonderfully  skilful  barbar 
ism,  or  semi-civilization  at  the  utmost.  The  aboriginal  races, 
except  perhaps  the  Eskimo,  were  essentially  one  in  their  social 
structure,  he  thinks,  however  varying  in  development.  In  his 
view  there  never  was  an  Aztec  or  Maya  empire,  but  only  a 
league  of  free  tribes,  appointing  their  own  chiefs,  and  accept 
ing  the  same  general  modes  of  organization,  based  on  consan 
guinity,  that  have  prevailed  among  all  the  more  advanced  fam 
ilies  of  North  American  Indians.  Montezuma  was  not  an 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS. 


5 


emperor,  and  had  no  palace,  but  he  lived  in  the  great  communal 
dwelling  of  his  tribe,  where  he  was  recognized  and  served  as 
head.  The  forests  of  Yucatan  held  no  vast  cities — cities  whose 
palaces  remain,  while  the  humble  dwellings  of  the  poor  have 
perished  —  but  only  pueblo  towns,  in  whose  great  communal 
structures  the  rich  and  the  poor  alike  dwelt.  There  are 
questions  enough  left  unsolved  in  American  archaeology,  no 
doubt,  but  the  solution  of  this  part  of  the  problem  has  now 


RESTORATION    OF   THE    PUEBLO    HUNGO    PAVIE. 


been  proposed  in  intelligible  terms,  at  least;  and  it  has  been 
rapidly  followed  up  by  the  accurate  researches  of  Morgan  and 
Putnam  and  Bandelier. 

I  have  said  that  all  this  new  view  of  the  problem  dates 
from  our  knowledge  of  the  Pueblo  or  Village  Indians  of  New 
Mexico.  What  is  a  pueblo  ?  It  is  an  Indian  town,  of  organ 
ization  and  aspect  so  peculiar  that  it  can  best  be  explained  by 
minute  descriptions.  Let  us  begin  with  the  older  examples, 
now  in  ruins.  Mr.  Bandelier  has  lately  examined  for  the 
American  Archaeological  Institute  a  ruined  building  at  Pecos, 
in  New  Mexico,  which  he  claims  to  be  the  largest  aboriginal 
structure  of  stone  within  the  limits  of  the  United  States.  It 
has  a  circuit  of  1480  feet,  is  five  stories  high,  and  once  in- 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


eluded  by  calculation  500  separate  rooms.  This  is  simply  a 
ruined  pueblo.  This  composite  dwelling  once  sheltered  the 
inhabitants  of  a  whole  Indian  town.  Pueblo  Bonito,  on  the 
Rio  Chacos,  described  by  Lieutenant  Simpson,  and  more  late 
ly  by  Dr.  W.  H.  Jackson,  is  1716  feet  in  circuit;  it  included 
641  rooms,  and  could  have  housed,  it  is  estimated,  3000  In 
dians.  A  stone  pueblo  on  the  Animas  River,  lately  visited 
and  described  by  Mr.  L.  H.  Morgan,  had  more  than  400 
rooms — and  such  instances  could  easily  be  multiplied.  As  a 
rule,  each  of  these  buildings  constituted  a  village — a  single 
vast  house  built  on  three  sides  of  a  court.  The  stories  rose 
in  successive  terraces,  each  narrower  than  the  one  beneath, 
and  each  approachable  only  by  ladders,  there  being  no  sign  of 
any  internal  means  of  ascent  from  story  to  story.  The  outer 
walls  were  built  usually  of  thin  slabs  of  gray  sandstone,  laid 

with    the    greatest   precision 
and  accuracy,  often  with  no 
signs  of  mortar,  the  intervals 
being   filled  with   stones    of 
the  minutest  thinness,  so  that 
the   whole   ruin    appears    in 
the     distance,    according    to 
Simpson,    "  like    a    magnifi 
cent  piece  of  mosaic  -  work." 
These    pueblos   were   practi 
cally  impregnable  to  all  un 
civilized  warfare,  and  they  differ  only  in  material,  not   in   the 
essentials  of  their  structure,  from  the  adobe  pueblos  occupied 
by  the  Village  Indians  of  to-day. 

The  first  impression  made  by  the  adobe  pueblos  now  inhab 
ited  is  quite  different  from  that  produced  by  these  great  stone 
structures,  yet  the  internal  arrangement  is  almost  precisely  the 
same.  As  you  cross,  for  instance,  the  green  meadows  of  the 
Rio  Grande,  you  see  rising  abruptly  before  you,  like  a  colossal 


PLAN    OF   HUNGO   PAVIE. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  7 

ant-hill,  a  great  drab  mound,  with  broken  lines  that  suggest 
roofs  at  the  top.  As  you  draw  nearer,  you  see  before  you  solid 
walls  or  banks  of  the  same  drab  hue,  perforated  here  and  there 
by  small  openings.  These  walls  are  in  tiers — tiers  of  terraces 
—each  spreading  out  flat  at  the  top,  and  a  few  feet  wide,  with 
a  higher  one  behind  it,  and  another  behind  that,  until  in  some 
cases  they  are  five  stories  high.  Strips  of  what  seems  lattice 
work  stand  on  these  terraces,  slanted,  tilted,  propped  irregularly 
here  and  there ;  they  also  are  of  a  drab  color,  "  as  if  walls,  roofs, 
ladders,  all  had  been  run,  wet  mud,  into  a  fretted  mould,  baked, 
and  turned  o-ut  like  some  freaky  confectioner's  device  made  of 
opaque,  light  brown  cough  candy."  At  intervals  upon  these 
terraces,  or  on  the  ground  near  the  base  of  the  walls,  there 
stand  low  oval  mounds  of  the  same  baked  drab  mud,  shaped 
like  the  half  of  an  egg-shell,  with  an  aperture  left  in  the  small 
end.  Then  there  are  on  the  roof,  lifted  a  few  feet  above  them, 
little  thatches  of  brush,  ragged  and  unfinished,  like  the  first 
rough  platform  of  twigs  and  mud  which  the  robin  constructs 
for  her  nest.  Closer  inspection  shows  that  the  tiers  and  ter 
races  are  the  stories  and  roofs  of  the  houses ;  the  holes  are 
doors  and  windows  opening  into  rooms  under  the  terraced 
roofs ;  the  strips  of  lattice  -  work  are  ladders,  these  being  the 
only  means  of  going  from  one  terrace  to  another;  the  little 
oval  mounds  are  ovens ;  and  the  bits  of  thatch  are  arbors  on 
the  roofs.  In  the  pueblo  of  San  Juan — as  recently  portrayed 
by  Mrs.  Helen  Jackson,  of  whose  graphic  description  the  above 
is  but  an  abstract — there  are  four  or  five  of  these  large  terraced 
buildings,  with  a  small  open  plaza  or  court  between.  When 
this  lady  visited  the  scene,  upon  a  festal  day,  this  plaza  was 
filled  with  Indians  and  Mexicans,  and  the  terraces  were  all 
covered  with  them,  dressed  for  the  most  part  in  blankets  of 
the  gayest  colors,  relieved  against  the  drab  adobe  walls  or 
against  a  brilliant  blue  sky.  This  group  of  strange  structures, 
thus  tenanted  and  thus  adorned,  is  an  inhabited  pueblo. 


8  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Sometimes,  as  at  Taos,  the  separate  dwellings  or  cells  of  the 
building  are  so  crowded  together  as  to  resemble,  in  the  words 
of  Bandelier,  "  an  extraordinarily  large  honey-comb."  The  same 


THE   NORTH    PUEBLO    OF   TAOS. 

is  the  case  with  that  of  Zuni,  both  these  pueblos  being  now  in 
habited,  and  the  latter,  which  is  the  larger,  giving  shelter  to  fif 
teen  hundred  Indians.  Others  again,  like  that  of  Acoma,  are  so 
protected  by  their  situation  that  this  close  aggregation  of  cells 
is  not  necessary;  and  the  little  tenements  are  simply  placed 
side  by  side  like  houses  in  a  block,  the  whole  being  perched  on 
a  cliff  three  hundred  and  fifty  feet  high,  accessible  only  by  a 
single  row  of  steps  cut  in  the  rock.  Sometimes  the  whole 
structure  is  in  a  cleft  of  a  rock,  yet  even  there  it  is  essentially 
a  pueblo,  with  the  same  terraces  and  the  same  ladders,  so  far  as 
there  is  room.  Sometimes  we  find  the  main  pueblo,  ruined  or 
inhabited,  beneath  the  cliff,  and  the  citadel  of  refuge  in  a  posi 
tion  almost  inaccessible  among  the  rocks  above.  Many  of  these 
masses  of  building  are  now  occupied,  more  are  in  ruins.  Each 
shelters,  or  may  have  sheltered,  hundreds  of  inhabitants,  and 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  9 

the  existing  Village  Indians  probably  represent  for  us  not 
merely  the  race,  but  the  mode  of  living  of  those  who  built 
every  one  of  these  great  structures.  If  we  wish  to  know  what 
was  the  America  which  Cortez  invaded,  we  must  look  for  it 
in  the  light  of  these  recent  investigations. 


RUINED   PUEBLO   AND   CITADEL. 


10  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

No  trace  now  remains  of  the  so-called  city  of  Mexico,  as 
Cortez  saw  it;  but  we  know,  in  a  vague  way,  how  it  compared 
with  the  pueblos  that  still  exist.  The  clew  to  a  comparison  is 
as  follows :  There  prevailed  in  the  sixteenth  century  a  legend 
that  seven  bishops  had  once  sailed  west  fiom  Portugal,  and 
founded  seven  cities  in  America.  Cabeza  de  Vaca,  after  his 
wanderings  in  the  interior  of  America  in  1536,  brought  back  an 
account  of  large  and  semi -civilized  communities  dwelling  in 
palaces ;  and  it  was  thought  that  these  might  be  identified  with 
the  cities  founded  by  the  bishops.  They  were  seen  again  by 
Fray  Marco  de  Niza  in  1-539,  and  by  Coronado  in  1540,  and 
were  by  them  mentioned  as  "  the  seven  cities  of  Cibola."  Coro 
nado  fully  describes  the  "  great  houses  of  stone,"  "  with  ladders 
instead  of  stairs,"  thus  identifying  them  unmistakably  with  the 
still  existing  pueblos.  Whether  they  were  the  seven  pueblos 
of  the  Zunis,  or  those  of  the  Moquis  in  Arizona,  is  as  yet  un 
settled  ;  but  it  is  pretty  certain  that  they  were  identical  with 
the  one  or  the  other;  and  as  Fray  Marco  declared  them  to  be 
in  his  day  "  more  considerable  than  Mexico,"  we  have  some 
thing  like  a  standard  of  comparison.  Such  great  communal 
houses,  which  could  shelter  a  whole  Spanish  army  within  their 
walls,  could  seem  nothing  else  than  palaces  to  those  wholly 
unused  to  the  social  organization  which  they  represented.  The 
explorers  reasoned,  just  as  students  reasoned  for  three  cen 
turies  longer,  that  structures  so  vast  could  only  have  been 
erected  by  despotism.  They  saw  an  empire  where  there  was 
no  empire  ;  they  supposed  themselves  in  presence  of  a  feu 
dalism  like  their  own ;  all  their  descriptions  were  cast  in  the 
mould  of  this  feudalism,  and  the  mould  remained  unbroken 
until  the  civilized  world,  within  thirty  years,  rediscovered  the 
pueblos. 

Again,  so  long  as  the  Pueblo  Indians  were  unknown  to  us, 
there  appeared  an  impassable  gap  between  the  roving  Indians 
of  the  North  and  the  more  advanced  race  that  Cortez  con- 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  1 1 

quered.  Yet  writers  had  long  since  pointed  out  the  seeming 
extravagance  of  the  Spanish  descriptions,  the  exaggeration  of 
their  statistics.  In  the  celebrated  Spanish  narrative  of  Monte- 
zuma's  banquet,  Bernal  Diaz,  writing  thirty  years  after  the 
event,  describes  four  women  as  bringing  water  to  their  chief — 
an  occurrence  not  at  all  improbable.  In  the  account  by  Her- 
rera,  written  still  later,  the  four  have  increased  to  twenty.  Ac 
cording  to  Diaz,  Montezuma  had  200  of  his  nobility  on  guard 
in  the  palace ;  Cortez  expands  them  to  600,  and  Herrera  to 
3000.  Zuazo,  describing  the  pueblo  or  town  of  Mexico  in  1521, 
attributed  to  it  60,000  inhabitants,  and  the  "  anonymous  con 
queror"  who  was  with  Cortez  wrote  the  same.  This  estimate 
Morgan  believes  to  have  been  twice  too  large ;  but  Gomara 
and  Peter  Martyr  transformed  the  inhabitants  into  houses — 
the  estimate  which  Prescott  follows — while  Torquemada,  cited 
by  Clavigero,  goes  still  further,  and  writes  120,000  houses. 
Supposing  that,  as  seems  probable,  the  Mexican  houses  were 
of  the  communal  type,  holding  fifty  or  a  hundred  persons  each, 
we  have  an  original  population  of  perhaps  30,000  swollen  to 
6,000,000.  These  facts  illustrate  the  extravagances  of  state 
ment  to  which  the  study  of  the  New  Mexican  pueblos  has  put 
an  end.  This  study  has  led  us  to  abate  much  of  the  exaggera 
tion  with  which  the  ancient  Mexican  society  has  been  treated, 
and  on  the  other  hand  to  do  justice  to  the  more  advanced 
among  the  tribes  of  Northern  Indians.  The  consequence  is 
that  the  two  types  appear  less  unlike  each  other  than  was 
formerly  supposed. 

Let  us  compare  the  habits  of  the  Pueblo  Indians  with 
those  of  more  northern  tribes.  Lewis  and  Clark  thus  describe 
a  village  of  the  Chopunish,  or  Nez  Perces,  on  the  Colum 
bia  River : 

'  The  village  of  Tunnachemootoolt  is  in  fact  only  a  single 
house  150  feet  long,  built  after  the  Chopunish  fashion  with 
sticks,  straw,  and  dried  grass.  It  contains  twenty- four  fires, 


12 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


HODENOSOTE,  OR   LONG   HOUSE   OF   THE 
IROQUOIS. 


about  double  that  number  of  families,  and  might  perhaps  mus 
ter  one  hundred  fighting  men." 

This  represents  a  communal  household  of  nearly  five  hun 
dred  people,  and  another  great  house  of  the  same  race  (Neche- 

colees)  was  still  larger,  being 
226  feet  in  length.  The 
houses  of  the  Iroquois  were 
100  feet  long.  The  Creeks, 
the  Mandans,  the  Sacs,  the 
Mohaves,  and  other  tribes 
lived  in  a  similar  communal 
way,  several  related  families 
in  each  house,  living  and  eat 
ing  in  common.  All  these 
built  their  houses  of  perisha 
ble  materials ;  some  arranged 

them  for  defence,  others  did  not,  but  all  the  structures  bear 
a  certain  analogy  to  each  other,  and  even,  when  carefully  con 
sidered,  to  the  pueblos  of  New  Mexico. 

Compare,  for   instance,  a  ground -plan  of  one  of  the  Cho- 
punish  houses  among  the  Nechecolees  with  that  of  an  Iroquois 
house  and  with  a  New  Mexican  pueblo,  and  one  is  struck  with 
the  resemblance.      All   these  houses    seem    obviously  adapted 
to     a    communal     life,     and 
traces   of  this  practice,  vary 
ing  in  different  places,  come 
constantly  before    us.      The 
Pueblo    Indians    hold    their 
lands      in      common.       The 
traveller  Stephens   saw  near 
the  ruins  of  Uxmal  the  food 
of  a   hundred   laboring -men 
prepared    at    one    hut,    and 
each  family  sending  for  its    own   portion  —  "a   procession    of 


INI 
fi  i  i 

III      Ml 
i  i  i  i   i  i  I 

PLAN    OF   IROQUOIS   HOUSE. 


220  Ft. 

PLAN  OF   NECHECOLEE   HOUSE. 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  13 

women  and  children,  each  carrying  a  smoking  bowl  of  hot 
broth,  all  coming  down  the  same  path,  and  dispersing  among 
the  huts."  But  this  description  might  easily  be  paralleled 
among  Northern  tribes.  I  will  not  dwell  on  the  complex  laws 
of  descent  and  relationship,  which  are  so  elaborately  described 
by  Morgan  in  his  "  Ancient  Society,"  and  which  appear  to 
have  prevailed  among  all  the  aboriginal  clans.  The  essential 
result  of  all  these  various  observations  is  this,  that  whatever 
degree  of  barbarism  or  semi-civilization  was  attained  by  any  of 
the  early  American  races,  it  was  everywhere  based  on  similar 
ways  of  living ;  it  never  resembled  feudalism,,  but  came  much 
nearer  to  communism ;  it  was  the  condition  of  a  people  sub 
stantially  free,  whose  labor  was  voluntary,  and  whose  chiefs 
were  of  their  own  choosing.  After  the  most  laborious  inves 
tigation  ever  made  into  the  subject,  Bandelier — in  the  twelfth 
report  of  the  Peabody  Institute — comes  to  the  conclusion  that 
"  the  social  organization  and  mode  of  government  of  the  an 
cient  Mexicans  was  a  military  democracy,  originally  based 
upon  communism  in  living.''  And  if  this  was  true  even  in  the 
seemingly  powerful  and  highly  organized  races  of  Mexico,  it 
was  certainly  true  of  every  North  American  tribe. 

If  we  accept  this  conclusion  —  and  the  present  tendency 
of  archaeologists  is  to  accept  it — the  greater  part  of  what  has 
been  written  about  prehistoric  American  civilization  proves  to 
have  been  too  hastily  said.  Tylor,  for  instance,  after  visiting 
the  pyramid  of  Cholula,  twenty-five  years  ago,  laid  it  down  as 
an  axiom :  "  Such  buildings  as  these  can  only  be  raised  under 
peculiar  social  conditions.  The  ruler  must  be  a  despotic  sov 
ereign,  and  the  mass  of  the  people  slaves,  whose  subsistence 
and  whose  lives  are  sacrificed  without  scruple  to  execute  the 
fancies  of  the  monarch,  who  is  not  so  much  the  governor  as 
the  unrestricted  owner  of  the  country  and  the  people."  He 
did  not  sufficiently  consider  that  this  is  the  first  and  easiest 
way  to  explain  all  great  structures  representing  vast  labor. 


14  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

An  American  writer  finds  it  necessary  to  explain  even  the 
works  of  the  Mound -builders  in  a  similar  way.  Mr.  Foster 
thinks  it  clear  that  "  the  condition  of  society  among  the 
Mound -builders  was  not  that  of  freemen,  or,  in  other  words, 


Section  of  large  Mound  A 


Section  of  Ring       Section  through  ditch  ; 

^-saf*-nE^__          A ^-r-6  A^       _>sft^E 

Mound  B. 


about  25  ft.  from  A  to  B 


FORTIFIED   VILLAGE   OF   MOUND-BUILDERS,  GROUND-PLAN. 

that  the  State  possessed  absolute  power  over  the  lives  and 
fortunes  of  its  subjects."  But  the  theory  of  despotism  is  no 
more  needed  to  explain  a  mound  or  a  pueblo  than  to  justify 
the  existence  of  the  "  Long  Houses "  of  the  Iroquois.  Even 
the  less  civilized  types  of  the  aboriginal  American  race  had 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS. 


learned  how  to  unite  in  erecting  their  communal  dwellings ; 
and  surely  the  higher  the  grade  the  greater  the  power. 

The  Mound-builders  were  formerly  regarded  as  a  race  so 
remote  from  the  present  Indian  tribes  that  there  could  be  noth 
ing  in  common  between  them,  yet  all  recent  inquiries  tend  to 
diminish  this  distance.  Many  Indian  tribes  have  built  burial 
mounds  for  their  dead.  Squier,  after  the  publication  of  his 
great  work  on  the  mounds  of  the  Mississippi  Valley,  made  an 
exploration  of  those  of  Western  New  York,  and  found,  contrary 
to  all  his  preconceived  opinions,  that  these  last  must  have  been 
made  by  the  Iroquois.  Some  of  the  most  elaborate  series  of 
works,  as  those  at  Marietta  and  Circleville,  Ohio,  have  yielded 
from  their  deepest  recesses  articles  of  European  manufacture, 
showing  an  origin  not  farther  back  than  the  historic  period. 
Spanish  swords  and  blue  glass  beads  have  been  found  in  the 
mounds  of  Georgia  and  Florida.  But  we  need  not  go  so  far 
as  this  to  observe  the  analogies  of  structure.  If  we  look  at 
Professor  Putnam's  ground- 
plan  of  a  fortified  village  of 
the  Mound-builders  on  Spring 
Creek,  in  Tennessee,  and  com 
pare  it  with  a  similar  plan  of  a 
Mandan  village  as  given  by 
Prince  Maximilian  of  Neu- 
wied  in  1843,  we  find  their 
arrangement  to  be  essentially 
the  same.  Each  is  on  a  prom 
ontory  protected  by  the  bend 
of  a  stream ;  each  is  sur 
rounded  by  an  embankment 
which  was  once,  in  all  prob 
ability,  surmounted  by  a  palisade.  Within  this  embankment 
were  the  houses,  distributed  more  irregularly  in  Putnam's 
plan,  more  formally  and  conventionally  in  that  of  the  Prince 


i 


FORTIFIED   MANDAN  VILLAGE. 


i6 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 


of  Neuwied ;  in  other  respects  the  two  villages  are  almost 
duplicates.  To  see  how  they  may  have  looked  when  occu 
pied,  we  may  compare  them  with  a  representation  of  a  vil 
lage  of  the  Onondagas,  attacked  by  Champlain  in  1615.  This 


FORTIFIED   ONONDAGA   VILLAGE. 


wood -cut  is  reproduced  from  one  in  the  "Documentary  His 
tory  of  New  York."  It  is  clear  that  the  Mound-builders  had 
much  in  common  with  those  well-known  tribes  of  Indians  the 
Mandans  and  Onondagas,  in  their  way  of  placing  and  pro 
tecting  their  houses  ;  and  another  comparison  has  lately  been 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  1 7 

made  which  links  their  works  on  the  other  side  with  the  New 
Mexican  pueblos.  Mr.  Morgan  has  caused  to  be  prepared 
a  conjectural  restoration  of  the  High  Bank  mounds  in  Ross 
County,  Ohio,  on  the  theory  that  in  that  instance  the  houses 
of  the  inhabitants  were  "Long  Houses"  in  structure,  and  were 
built  for  defensive  purposes  on  top  of  the  embankment.  This 
makes  the  villages  into  pueblos,  and  Mr.  Morgan  therefore 
baptizes  the  settlement  anew  with  the  name  of  "  High  Bank 
Pueblo."  A  mere  glance  at  his  restoration  will  show  how 


MORGAN'S   HIGH   BANK   PUEBLO. 


much    there    was    in    common    between    the    various    types    of 
what  he  calls  the  aboriginal  American  race. 

It  remains  to  be  considered  whether  the  very  highest  forms 
of  this  race — the  Aztecs  and  the  Mayas — were  properly  to  be 
called  civilized.  It  is  a  matter  of  definitions ;  it  depends  upon 
what  we  regard  as  constituting  civilization.  Here  was  a  people 
whose  development  showed  strange  contradictions.  The  an 
cient  Mexicans  were  skilled  in  horticulture,  yet  had  no  beasts 
of  burden  and  no  milk,  although  the  ox  and  buffalo  were  within 
easy  reach.  They  were  a  trading  people,  and  used  money,  but 
had  apparently  no  system  of  weighing.  They  used  stone  tools 
so  sharp  that  Cortez  found  barbers  shaving  with  razors  of  ol> 

2 


1 8  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

sidian  in  the  public  squares ;  they  worked  in  gold  and  copper, 
yet  they  had  not  learned  to  make  iron  tools  from  the  masses  of 
that  metal  which  lay,  almost  pure,  in  the  form  of  aerolites,  in 
their  midst.  They  could  observe  eclipses  and  make  a  calendar, 
yet  it  is  still  doubtful  whether  they  had  what  is  properly  to  be 


i. 


2. 


Signs. 


Phonetic 


IO. 


II. 


12. 


14. 


16. 


18. 


Signs. 


Phonetic 
value. 

i 


ca 


o. 


19. 

20. 
21. 
22. 
23. 
24. 

25- 
26. 

27. 


Signs. 


Phonetic 
value. 


PP 


CU 


ku 


E  • 
f  • 


DIEGO  DE  LANDA'S  MAYA  ALPHABET. 


called  an  alphabet.  It  is  certain  that  they  had  a  method  of 
picture-writing,  not  apparently  removed  in  kind  from  the  sort 
of  pictorial  mnemonics  practised  by  many  tribes  of  Indians  at 
the  present  day ;  and  all  definite  efforts  to  extract  more  than 
this  from  it  have  thus  far  failed.  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  be- 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  19 

lieved  that  he  had  found  in  1863,  in  the  library  of  the  Royal 
Academy  of  History  at  Madrid,  a  manuscript  key  to  the  pho 
netic  alphabet  of  the  Mayas.  It  was  attached  to  an  unpub 
lished  description  of  Yucatan  ("  Relacion  de  las  Cosas  de  Yu 
catan  "),  written  by  Diego  de  Landa,  one  of  the  early  Span 
ish  bishops  of  that  country.  Amid  the  general  attention  of 
"  Americanists,"  Brasseur  de  Bourbourg  tried  his  skill  upon 
one  of  the  few  Maya  manuscripts,  but  with  little  success ; 
and  Dr.  Valentini,  with  labored  analysis,  has  lately  given  his 
reasons  for  thinking  the  whole  so-called  alphabet  a  Span 
ish  fabrication.  The  very  question  of  the  alphabet  remains, 
therefore,  still  improved,  while  Tylor,  the  highest  living  au 
thority  on  anthropology,  considers  it  essential  to  the  claim  of 
ivilization  that  a  nation  should  have  a  written  language. 
Tried  by  this  highest  standard,  therefore,  we  cannot  yet  say 
that  either  the  Aztecs  or  the  Mayas  were  civilized. 

To  sum  up  the  modern  theory,  the  key  to  the  whole  abo 
riginal  American  society  is  given  in  the  pueblos  of  New  Mex 
ico,  representing  the  communal  household.  This  household  is 
still  to  be  seen  at  its  lowest  point  in  the  lodges  of  the  rov 
ing  Indians  of  the  North,  and  it  produced,  when  carried  to 
its  highest  point,  all  the  art  and  architecture  of  Uxmal,  and 
all  the  so-called  civilization  which  the  Spanish  conquerors  ad 
mired,  exaggerated,  and  overthrew.  The  mysterious  mounds 
of  the  Ohio  Valley  were  erected  only  that  they  might  give 
to  their  builders  the  advantages  possessed  without  labor  by 
those  who  dwelt  upon  the  high  table -lands  of  New  Mexico. 
The  great  ruined  edifices  in  the  valley  of  the  Chacos  are 
the  same  in  kind  with  the  ruined  "  palaces  "  of  Yucatan.  All 
these  —  lodges,  palaces,  and  pueblos  alike  —  are  but  the  com 
munal  dwellings  of  one  great  aboriginal  race,  of  uncertain 
origin  and  history,  varying  greatly  in  grade  of  development, 
but  one  in  institutions,  in  society,  and  in  blood.  This  is  the 
modern  theory,  a  theory  which  has  given  a  new  impulse  to  all 


20  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

investigation  and  all  thought  upon  this  subject,  but  one  which 
the  lamented  death  of  its  originator  leaves  only  half  developed, 
after  all,  so  that  it  must  be  mentioned  as  a  theory  still. 

What   is   now   its   strength,  at   this   moment,  and    what    its 
weakness?      Its   strength    is    that    of   a    strong,  simple,  intelli- 


COLOSSAL   STATUE  OF   CHAAC-MOL. 

gible  working  hypothesis  —  not  merely  the  best  that  has  been 
offered,  but  the  first.  What  is  its  weakness  ?  This  only,  that, 
like  many  a  promising  theory  in  the  natural  sciences,  it  may 
prove  to  be  only  too  simple,  after  all,  and  not  quite  adequate 
to  account  for  the  facts. 

Mr.  Morgan,  with  all  his  great  merits,  had  not  always  the 
moderation  which  gives  such  peculiar  value  to  the  works  of 
Darwin ;  he  was  not  always  willing  to  distinguish  between 
what  was  firm  ground  and  what  was  only  tentative.  In  order 
to  make  his  theory  appear  consistent  he  had  to  ignore  many 
difficulties,  and  settle  many  points  in  an  off-hand  manner,  and 
there  is  something  almost  exasperating  in  the  positiveness  with 
which  he  sometimes  assumes  as  proved  that  which  is  only 
probable.  Grant  all  his  analogies  of  the  gens  and  the  com 
munal  dwelling,  the  fact  still  is  that  in  studyjng  the  Central 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  21 

American  remains  we  are  dealing  with  a  race  who  had  got 
beyond  mere  household  architecture,  and  were  rising  to  the 
sphere  of  art,  so  that  their  attempts  in  this  respect  must 
enter  into  our  estimate.  In  studying  them  from  this  point  of 
view,  we  encounter  new  difficulties  which  Mr.  Morgan  wholly 
ignores.  The  tales  of  the  Spanish  conquerors  are  scarcely 
harder  to  accept  than  the  assumption  that  all  the  artistic  dec 
oration  of  the  Yucatan  edifices  was  lavished  upon  communal 
houses,  built  only  to  be  densely  packed  with  Indians  "  in  the 
Middle  Status  of  Barbarism,"  as  Morgan  calls  them.  That  a 


SCULPTURED    HEAD   OF    YUCATAN. 


statue  like  that  of  Chaac-Mol,  discovered  by  Dr.  Le  Plongeon 
at  Chichen  -  Itza,  should  have  been  produced  by  a  race  not 
differing  in  descent  or  essential  habits  from  the  Northern  Iro- 
quois,  seems  simply  incredible. 


22 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


Consider  the  difference.  In  Central  America  we  find  the 
remains  of  a  race  which  had  begun  to  busy  itself  with  the  very 
highest  department  of  art,  the  delineation  of  the  human  figure; 
and  which  had  attained  to  grace  and  vigor,  if  not  yet  to  beau 
ty,  in  this  direction.  The  stately  stone  heads  of  Yucatan ;  the 
arch  and  spirited  features  depicted  on  the  Maya  incense-burn 
ers  ;  the  fine  face  carved  in  sandstone,  brought  from  Topila, 
and  now  in  possession  of  the  New  York  Historical  Society — 
these  indicate  a  sphere  of  development  utterly  beyond  that  of 
those  Northern  Indians  whose  utmost  achievement  consists  in 
some  graceful  vase  like  that  found  in  Burlington,  Vermont, 
and  now  preserved  by  the  Vermont  University, 


INCENSE-BURNERS    FROM    YUCATAN. 


It  is  safer  to  leave  the  question  where  it  is  left  by  another 
deceased  American  archaeologist  scarcely  less  eminent  than 
Mr.  Morgan,  and  not  less  courageous,  but  far  more  gentle  and 
more  guarded,  the  late  Samuel  Foster  Haven,  of  Worcester, 
Massachusetts,  the  accomplished  librarian  of  the  American 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS.  23 

Antiquarian  Society :  "  Mr.  Morgan  has  grasped  some  of  the 
problems  of  aboriginal  character  and  habits  with  a  firm  and 
vigorous  hand,  but  is  far  from  being  entitled  to  claim  that  he 
has  discovered  the  entire  secret  of  prehistoric  life  on  this  con 
tinent." 


FEMALE    FACE    FROM    TOPI  LA. 


But  now  suppose  the  modern  theory  to  be  accepted  in  its 
fulness.  Let  us  agree,  for  the  moment,  with  Morgan,  that 
there  was  in  America,  when  discovered,  but  one  race  of  In 
dians  besides  the  Eskimo  —  the  Red  Race.  Still  there  lies 
behind  us  the  problem,  in  whose  solution  science  has  hardly 
yet  gained  even  a  foothold,  Whence  did  this  race  originate  ? 
Here  we  deliberately  confuse  ourselves  a  little  by  the  word 
"  discovery."  When  we  speak  of  the  discovery  of  America  we 
always  mean  the  arrival  of  Europeans,  forgetting  that  there 
was  probably  a  time  when  Europe  itself  was  first  discovered 
by  Asiatics,  and  that  for  those  Asiatics  it  was  almost  as  easy 
to  discover  America.  All  that  is  necessary,  even  at  this  day, 
to  bring  a  Japanese  junk  to  the  Pacific  coast  of  North  America 
is  that  it  should  be  blown  out  to  sea  and  then  lose  its  rudder; 
the  first  mishap  has  often  happened,  the  second  casualty  has 


24  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

almost  always  followed,  and  the  Gulf  Stream  of  the  Pacific, 
the  Kuro  Siwo,  or  "black  stream,"  or  "Japan  current,"  has 
done  the  rest.  Mr.  Charles  W.  Brooks,  of  San  Francisco,  has 
a  record  of  no  less  than  a  hundred  such  instances,  and  there 
is  no  reason  why  similar  events  should  not  have  been  occur 
ring  for  centuries.  Nor  is  it,  indeed,  needful  to  go  so  far  as 
this  for  a  means  of  communication.  Behring  Strait  is  but 
little  wider  than  the  English  Channel,  and  it  is  as  easy  to 
make  the  passage  from  Asia  to  America  as  from  France  to 
England ;  and  indeed  easier  for  half  the  year,  when  Behring 
Strait  is  frozen.  Besides  all  this,  both  geology  and  botany 
indicate  that  the  separation  between  the  two  continents  did 
not  always  exist.  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  our  highest  botanical  author 
ity,  long  since  pointed  out  the  extraordinary  identity  between 
the  Japanese  flora  and  that  of  the  Northern  United  States,  as 
indicating  a  period  when  the  two  continents  were  one.  It  is 
an  argument  difficult  to  resist,  for  surely  flowers  do  not  cross 
the  ocean  in  junks,  or  traverse  the  frozen  straits  upon  the  ice. 
The  colonization  of  America  from  Asia  was  thus  practicable, 
at  any  rate,  and  that  far  more  easily  than  any  approach  from 
the  European  side.  The  simple  races  on  each  side  of  Behring 
Strait,  which  now  communicate  with  each  other  freely,  must 
have  done  the  same  from  very  early  times.  They  needed 
no  consent  of  sovereigns  to  do  it :  they  were  not  obliged  to 
wait  humbly  in  the  antechamber  of  some  king,  suing  for  per 
mission  to  discover  for  him  another  world.  This  we  must 
recognize  at  the  outset;  but  when  it  is  granted,  we  are  still 
upon  the  threshold.  Concede  that  America  is  but  an  outlying 
Asia,  it  does  not  follow  that  America  was  peopled  from  Asia ; 
the  course  of  population  may  first  have  gone  the  other  way. 
Or  it  may  be  that  the  human  race  had  upon  each  continent 
an  autochthonous  or  indigenous  place,  according  as  we  prefer 
a  hard  Greek  word  or  a  hard  Latin  word  to  express  the  simple 
fact  that  a  race  comes  into  existence  on  a  certain  soil,  instead 


THE  FIRST  AMERICANS. 


of  migrating  thither.  Migrations,  too,  in  plenty  may  in  this 
case  have  come  afterwards,  and  modified  the  type,  giving  to  it 
that  Asiatic  or  Mongoloid  cast  which  is  now  acknowledged 
by  almost  all  ethnologists. 


INDIAN    VASE    FOUND    IN  VERMONT. 


How  long  may  this  process  of  migration  and  mingling 
have  gone  on  upon  the  American  continent  ?  Who  can  tell  ? 
Sir  John  Lubbock,  a  high  authority,  says  "  not  more  than  three 
thousand  years ;"  but  it  is  not  so  easy  to  fix  a  limit.  To  be 
sure,  some  evidences  of  antiquity  that  are  well  established  in 
Europe  are  as  yet  wanting  in  America,  or  at  least  imperfectly 
proved.  In  the  French  bone-caves  there  have  been  found  un 
questionable  representations  of  the  mammoth  scratched  on 
pieces  of  its  own  ivory,  and  exhibiting  the  shaggy  hair  and 
curved  tusks  that  distinguish  it  from  all  other  elephants. 
There  is  as  yet  no  such  direct  and  unequivocal  evidence  in 
America  of  the  existence  of  man  during  the  interglacial  period. 


26  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

The  alleged  evidence,  as  given  in  the  books  up  to  the  present 
time,  fails  to  satisfy  the  more  cautious  archaeologists.  The 
so-called  "elephants'  trunks"  used  in  ornamentation  on  the 
Central  American  buildings  offer  only  a  vague  and  remote 
resemblance  to  the  supposed  originals.  The  "  elephant  pipe " 
dug  up  in  Iowa,  and  now  preserved  by  the  Davenport  Acad 
emy  of  Sciences,  does  not  quite  command  confidence  as  to  its 
genuineness.  The  "  Elephant  Mound,"  described  and  figured 
in  the  Smithsonian  Report  for  1872,  has  a  merely  suggestive 
resemblance,  like  most  of  the  mounds,  to  the  objects  whose 
name  it  bears.  Lapham  long  since  pointed  out  that  the  names 
of  "  Lizard  Mound,"  "  Serpent  Mound,"  and  the  like,  are  usu 
ally  based  on  very  remote  similarities ;  and  Squier  tells  us  of 
one  mound  which  has  been  likened  successively  to  a  bird,  a 
bow  and  arrow,  and  a  man. 

Other  sources  of  evidences  are  scarcely  more  satisfactory. 
There  is  no  doubt  that  mammoth  bones  have  been  found 
mingled  with  arrow-heads  in  some  places,  and  with  matting  or 
pottery  in  others ;  but  unhappily  some  doubt  rests  as  yet  on 
all  these  discoveries.  It  is  in  no  case  quite  sure  that  the  de 
posits  had  remained  undisturbed  as  found,  or  that  they  had 
not  been  washed  together  by  floods  of  water.  Up  to  the  pres 
ent  time  the  strongest  argument  in  favor  of  the  very  early 
existence  of  man  upon  this  continent  is  not  to  be  found  in 
such  comparatively  simple  lines  of  evidence,  but  in  the  inves 
tigations  of  Dr.  Abbott  among  primeval  implements  in  New 
Jersey,  or  those  of  Professor  J.  D.  Whitney  among  human 
remains  in  California.  Their  inquiries  may  yet  conclusively 
establish  the  fact  that  the  aboriginal  American  man  was  con 
temporary  with  the  mammoth ;  in  the  mean  time  it  is  only 
probable,  not  quite  proved. 

Must  we  not  admit  that  in  our  efforts  to  explain  the  origin 
of  the  first  American  man,  it  is  necessary  to  end,  after  all, 
with  an  interrogation  mark? 


VIKING'S   WAR   SHIP,  ENGRAVED   ON   ROCK   IN    NORWAY. 


II. 

THE    VISIT  OF  THE   VIKINGS. 

THE  American  antiquarians  of  the  last  generation  had  a 
great  dislike  to  anything  vague  or  legendary,  and  they 
used  to  rejoice  that  there  was  nothing  of  that  sort  about  the 
discovery  of  America.  The  history  of  other  parts  of  the  world, 
they  said,  might  begin  in  myth  and  tradition,  but  here  at  least 
was  firm  ground,  a  definite  starting-point,  plain  outlines,  and 
no  vague  and  shadowy  romance.  Yet  they  were  destined  to 
be  disappointed,  and  it  may  be  that  nothing  has  been  lost, 
after  all.  Our  low  American  shores  would  look  tame  and  un 
interesting  but  for  the  cloud  and  mist  which  are  perpetually 
trailing  in  varied  beauty  above  them,  giving  a  constant  play 
of  purple  light  and  pale  shadow,  and  making  them  deserve  the 
name  given  to  such  shores  by  the  old  Norse  legends,  "  Won- 
derstrands."  It  is  the  same,  perhaps,  with  our  early  history. 
It  may  be  fitting  that  the  legends  of  the  Northmen  should 


28  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

come  in,  despite  all  the  resistance  of  antiquarians,  to  supply 
just  that  indistinct  and  vague  element  which  is  needed  for 
picturesqueness.  At  any  rate,  whether  we  like  it  or  not,  the 
legends  are  here. 

I  can  well  remember,  as  a  boy,  the  excitement  produced 
among  Harvard  College  professors  when  the  ponderous  vol 
ume  called  "  Antiquitates  Americanae,"  containing  the  Norse 
legends  of  "  Vinland,"  with  the  translations  of  Professor  Rafn, 
made  its  appearance  on  the  library  table.  For  the  first  time 
the  claim  was  openly  made  that  there  had  been  European  vis 
itors  to  this  continent  before  Columbus.  The  historians  shrank 
from  the  innovation :  it  spoiled  their  comfort.  Indeed,  Mr. 
George  Bancroft  to  this  day  will  hardly  allude  to  the  subject, 
and  §ets  aside  the  legends,  using  a  most  inappropriate  phrase, 
as  "  mythological."  And  it  so  happened,  as  will  appear  by- 
and-by,  that  when  the  claim  was  first  made  it  was  encumbered 
with  some  very  poor  arguments.  Nevertheless,  the  main  story 
was  not  permanently  hurt  by  these  weak  points.  Its  truth 
has  never  been  successfully  impeached ;  at  any  rate,  we  cannot 
deal  with  American  history  unless  we  give  some  place  to  the 
Norse  legends.  Picturesque  and  romantic  in  themselves,  they 
concern  men  in  whom  we  have  every  reason  to  be  interested. 
These  Northmen,  or  Vikings,  were  not  merely  a  far-away  peo 
ple  with  whom  we  have  nothing  in  common,  but  they  really 
belonged  to  the  self-same  race  of  men  with  most  of  ourselves. 
They  were,  perhaps,  the  actual  ancestors  of  some  living  Amer 
icans,  and  kinsfolk  to  the  majority.  Men  of  the  same  race 
conquered  England,  and  were  known  as  Saxons ;  then  con 
quered  France,  and  were  known  as  Normans ;  and  finally 
crossed  over  from  France  and  conquered  England  again. 
These  Norse  Vikings  were,  like  most  of  us,  Scandinavians, 
and  so  were  really  closer  to  us  in  blood  and  in  language  than 
was  the  great  Columbus. 

What  were  the  ways  and  manners  of  these  Vikings?     We 


THE    VISIT  OF    THE    VIKIXG 


must  remember  at  the  outset  that  their  name  implies  nothing 
of  royalty.  They  were  simply  the  dwellers  on  a  vik,  or  bay. 
They  were,  in  other  words,  the  sea-side  population  of  the  Scan 
dinavian  peninsula,  the  only  part  of  Europe  which  then  sent 
forth  a  race  of  sea-rovers.  They  resembled  in  some  respects 
the  Algerine  corsairs  of  a  later  period,  but,  unlike  the  Alge- 
rines,  they  were  conquerors  as  well  as  pirates,  and  were  ready 
to  found  settlements  wherever  they  went.  Nor  were  the  Vi 
kings  yet  Christians,  for  their  life  became  more  peaceful  from 
the  time  when  Christianity  came  among  them.  In  the  prime 
of  their  heathenism  they  were  the  terror  of  Europe.  They 
carried  their  forays  along  the  whole  continent.  They  entered 
every  port  in  England,  and  touched  at  every  island  on  the 
Scottish  coast.  They  sailed  up  French  rivers,  and  Charle 
magne,  the  ruler  of  Western  Europe,  wept  at  seeing  their  dark 
ships.  They  reached  the  Mediterranean,  and  formed  out  of 
their  own  number  the  famous  Varangian  guard  of  the  later 
Greek  emperors,  the  guard  which  is  described  by  Walter  Scott 
in  "  Count  Robert  of  Paris."  They  reached  Africa,  which  they 
called  "  Saracens'  Land,"  and  there  took  eighty  castles.  All 
their  booty  they  sent  back  to  Norway,  and  this  wealth  in 
cluded  not  only  what  they  took  from  enemies,  but  what  they 
had  from  the  very  courts  they  served ;  for  it  was  the  practice 
at  Constantinople,  when  an  emperor  died,  for  the  Norse  guard 
to  go  through  the  palaces  and  take  whatever  they  could  hold 
in  their  hands.  To  this  day  Greek  and  Arabic  gold  coins 
and  chains  are  found  in  the  houses  of  the  Norwegian  peas 
ants,  and  may  be  seen  in  the  museums  of  Christiania  and 
Copenhagen. 

Such  were  the  Vikings,  and  it  is  needless  to  say  that  with 
such  practices  they  were  in  perpetual  turmoil  at  home,  and 
needed  a  strong  hand  to  keep  the  peace  among  them.  Some 
times  a  king  would  make  a  foray  among  his  own  people,  as 
recorded  in  this  extract  from  the  "  Heimskringla,"  or  "  Kings 


30  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

of    Norway,"  written    by   Snorri    Sturleson,  and    translated    by 
Laing : 

"  King  Harald  heard  that  the  Vikings,  who  were  in  the  West  Sea  in  win 
ter,  plundered  far  and  wide  in  the  middle  part  of  Norway,  and  therefore  every 
summer  he  made  an  expedition  to  search  the  isles  and  outskerries  [outlying 
rocks]  on  the  coast.  Wheresoever  the  Vikings  heard  of  him  they  all  took 
to  flight,  and  most  of  them  out  into  the  open  ocean.  At  last  the  king  grew 
weary  of  this  work,  and  therefore  one  summer  he  sailed  with  his  fleet  right 
out  into  the  West  Sea.  First  he  came  to  Shetland,  and  he  slew  all  the  Vikings 
who  could  not  save  themselves  by  flight.  Then  King  Harald  sailed  south 
ward  to  the  Orkney  Islands,  and  cleared  them  all  of  Vikings.  Thereafter 
he  proceeded  to  the  Hebrides,  plundered  there,  and  slew  many  Vikings  who 
formerly  had  had  men-at-arms  under  them.  Many  a*  battle  was  fought,  and 
King  Harald  was  always  victorious.  He  then  plundered  far  and  wide  in  Scot 
land  itself,  and  had  a  battle  there." 

We  see  from  the  last  sentence  that  King  Harald  himself 
was  but  a  stronger  Viking,  and  that,  after  driving  away  other 
plunderers,  he  did  their  work  for  himself.  Such  were  all  the 
Norsemen  of  the  period ;  they  were  daring,  generous,  open- 
handed.  They  called  gold  in  their  mythology  "  the  serpent's 
bed,"  and  called  a  man  who  was  liberal  in  giving  "  a  hater 
of  the  serpent's  bed,"  because  such  a  man  parts  with  gold  as 
with  a  thing  he  hates.  But  they  were  cruel,  treacherous,  un 
scrupulous.  Harald,  when  he  commanded  the  emperor's  body 
guard  at  Constantinople,  and  was  associated  with  Greek 
troops,  always  left  his  allies  to  fight  for  themselves  and  be 
defeated,  and  only  fought  where  his  Northmen  could  fight 
alone  and  get  all  the  glory.  While  seeming  to  defend  the 
Emperor  Michael,  he  enticed  him  into  his  power  and  put  out 
his  eyes.  The  Norse  chronicles  never  condemn  such  things ; 
there  is  never  a  voice  in  favor  of  peace  or  mercy;  but  they 
assume,  as  a  matter  of  course,  that  a  leader  shall  be  foremost 
in  attack  and  last  in  retreat.  In  case  of  need  he  must  give 
his  life  for  his  men.  There  is  no  finer  touch  in  Homer  than 
is  found  in  one  of  the  sagas  which  purport  'to  describe  the 
Norse  voyages  to  Vinland.  It  must  be  remembered,  in  order 


THE    VISIT  OF    THE    VIKINGS,  31 


to  understand  it,  that  the  Northmen  believed  that  certain  seas 
were  infested  with  the  teredo,  or  ship-worm,  and  that  vessels  in 
those  seas  were  in  the  very  greatest  danger. 

"Bjarni  Grimalfson  was  driven  with  his  ship  into  the  Irish  Ocean,  and 
they  came  into  a  worm -sea,  and  straightway  began  the  ship  to  sink  under 
them.  They  had  a  boat  which  was  smeared  with  seal  oil,  for  the  sea-worms 
do  not  attack  that.  They  went  into  the  boat,  and  then  saw  that  it  could  not 
hold  them  all.  Then  said  Bjarni :  *  Since  the  boat  cannot  give  room  to  more 
than  the  half  of  our  men,  it  is  my  counsel  that  lots  should  be  drawn  for  those 
to  go  in  the  boat,  for  it  shall  not  be  according  to  rank.'  This  thought  they 
all  so  high-minded  an  offer  that  no  one  would  speak  against  it.  They  then 
did  so  that  lots  were  drawn,  and  it  fell  upon  Bjarni  to  go  in  the  boat,  and  the 
half  of  the  men  with  him,  for  the  boat  had  not  room  for  more.  But  when 
they  had  gotten  into  the  boat,  then  said  an  Icelandic  man  who  was  in  the 
ship,  and  had  come  with  Bjarni  from  Iceland,  '  Dost  thou  intend,  Bjarni,  to 
separate  from  me  here  ?'  Bjarni  answered,  '  So  it  turns  out.'  Then  said  the 
other,  '  Very  different  was  thy  promise  to  my  father  when  I  went  with  thee 
from  Iceland  than  thus  to  abandon  me,  for  thou  saidst  that  we  should  both 
share  the  same  fate.'  Bjarni  replied  :  *  It  shall  not  be  thus.  Go  thou  down 
into  the  boat,  and  I  will  go  up  into  the  ship,  since  I  see  that  thou  art  so  de 
sirous  to  live.'  Then  went  Bjarni  up  into  the  ship,  but  this  man  down  into- 
the  boat,  and  after  that  continued  they  their  voyage  until  they  came  to  Dublin,, 
in  Ireland,  and  told  there  these  things.  But  it  is  most  people's  belief  that 
Bjarni  and  his  companions  were  lost  in  the  worm-sea,  for  nothing  was  heard 
of  them  since  that  time." 

Centuries  have  passed  since  the  ships  of  the  Vikings 
floated  on  the  water,  and  yet  we  know,  almost  as  if  they  had 
been  launched  yesterday,  their  model  and  their  build.  They 
are  found  delineated  on  rocks  in  Norway,  and  their  remains 
are  still  dug  up  from  beneath  the  ground.  One  of  them  was 
unearthed  lately  from  a  mound  of  blue  clay  at  Gokstad  or 
Sandefjord,  in  Norway,  at  a  point  now  half  a  mile  from  the 
sea;  and  it  had  plainly  been  used  as  the  burial-place  of  its 
owner.  The  sepulchral  chamber  in  which  the  body  of  the 
Viking  had  been  deposited  was  built  amidships,  being  tent- 
like  in  shape,  and  made  of  logs  placed  side  by  side,  leaning 
against  a  ridge-pole.  In  this  chamber  were  found  human 
bones,  the  bones  of  a  little  dog,  the  bones  and  feathers  of  a 


32  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

peacock,  some  fish  -  hooks,  and  several  bronze  and  lead  orna 
ments  for  belts  and  harness.  Round  about  the  ship  were 
found  the  bones  of  nine  or  ten  horses  and  dogs,  which  had 
probably  been  sacrificed  at  the  time  of  the  burial.  The  ves 
sel  was  seventy-seven  feet  eleven  inches  at  the  greatest  length, 
and  sixteen  feet  eleven  inches  at  the  greatest  width,  and  from 
the  top  of  the  keel  to  the  gunwale  amidships  she  was  five 
feet  nine  inches  deep.  She  had  twenty  ribs,  and  would  draw 
less  than  four  feet  of  water.  She  was  clinker-built;  that  is, 
had  plates  slightly  overlapped,  like  the  shingles  on  the  side 
of  a  house.  The  planks  and  timbers  of  the  frame  were  fast- 


NORSE   BOAT   UNEARTHED   AT   SANDEFJORD. 

ened  together  with  withes  made  of  roots,  but  the  oaken 
boards  of  the  side  were  united  by  iron  rivets  firmly  clinched. 
The  bow  and  stern  were  similar  in  shape,  and  must  have 
risen  high  out  of  water,  but  were  so  broken  that  it  was  im 
possible  to  tell  how  they  originally  ended.  The  keel  was 
deep,  and  made  of  thick  oak  beams,  and  there  was  no  trace 
of  any  metallic  sheathing;  but  an  iron  anchor  was  found  al 
most  rusted  to  pieces.  There  was  no  deck,  and  the  seats  for 
rowers  had  been  taken  out.  The  oars  were  twenty  feet  long, 
and  the  oar -holes,  sixteen  on  each  side,  had  slits  sloping  to 
wards  the  stern  to  allow  the  blades  of  the  oars  to  be  put 
through  from  inside. 

The  most  peculiar  thing  about  the  ship  was   the  rudder, 
which    was    on    the    starboard    or   right   side,  this   side    being 


THE   VISIT  OF   THE    VIKINGS.  33 

originally  called  "  steerboard "  from  this  circumstance.  The 
rudder  was  like  a  large  oar,  with  long  blade  and  short  handle, 
and  was  attached,  not  to  the  side  of  the  boat,  but  to  the  end 
of  a  conical  piece  of  wood  which  projected  almost  a  foot 
from  the  side  of  the  vessel,  and  almost  two  feet  from  the 
stern.  This  piece  of  wood  was  bored  down  its  length,  and 
no  doubt  a  rope  passing  through  it  secured  the  rudder  to 
the  ship's  side.  It  was  steered  by  a  tiller  attached  to  the 
handle,  and  perhaps  also  by  a  rope  fastened  to  the  blade. 
As  a  whole,  this  disinterred  vessel  proved  to  be  anything  but 
the  rude  and  primitive  craft  which  might  have  been  expected ; 
it  was  neatly  built  and  well  preserved,  constructed  on  what  a 
sailor  would  call  beautiful  lines,  and  eminently  fitted  for  sea 
service.  Many  such  vessels  may  be  found  depicted  on  the 
celebrated  Bayeux  tapestry ;  and  the  peculiar  position  of  the 
rudder  explains  the  treaty  mentioned  in  the  Heimskringla, 
giving  to  Norway  all  lands  lying  west  of  Scotland  between 
which  and  the  mainland  a  vessel  could  pass  with  her  rudder 
shipped. 

The  vessel  thus  described  is  preserved  at  Christiania,  and 
is  here  represented  from  an  engraving,  for  which  I  am  in 
debted  to  Professor  R.  B.  Anderson,  of  Madison,  Wisconsin. 
A  full  account  of  it,  with  many  illustrations,  was  published  in 
a  quarto  volume  by  N.  Nicolayson,  at  Christiania,  in  1882. 
This  was  not  one  of  the  very  largest  ships,  for  some  of  them 
had  thirty  oars  on  each  side,  and  vessels  carrying  from  twenty 
to  twenty-five  were  not  uncommon.  The  largest  of  these  were 
called  Dragons,  and  other  sizes  were  known  as  Serpents  or 
Cranes.  The  ship  itself  was  often  so  built  as  to  represent 
the  name  it  bore :  the  dragon,  for  instance,  was  a  long  low 
vessel,  with  the  gilded  head  of  a  dragon  at  the  bow,  and  the 
gilded  tail  at  the  stern ;  the  moving  oars  at  the  side  might 
represent  the  legs  of  the  imaginary  creature,  the  row  of  shin 
ing  red  and  white  shields  that  were  hung  over  the  gunwale 

3 


34  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

looked  like  the  monster's  scales,  and  the  sails  striped  with 
red  and  blue  might  suggest  his  wings.  The  ship  preserved 
at  Christiania  is  described  as  having  had  but  a  single  mast, 
set  into  a  block  of  wood  so  large  that  it  is  said  no  such 
block  could  now  be  cut  in  Norway.  Probably  the  sail  was 
much  like  those  still  carried  by  large  open  boats  in  that  coun 
try —  a  single  square  sail  on  a  mast  forty  feet  long.  These 
masts  have  no  standing  rigging,  and  are  taken  down  when 
not  in  use ;  and  this  was  probably  the  practice  of  the  Vikings. 
In  case  of  danger  these  sea-rovers  trusted  chiefly  to  their 
oars.  Once,  when  King  Harald's  fleet  was  on  its  way  back 
to  Norway  with  plunder  from  Denmark,  the  vessels  lay  all 
night  at  anchor  in  the  fog,  and  when  the  sun  pierced  the 
fog  in  the  morning  it  seemed  as  if  many  lights  were  burn 
ing  in  the  sea.  Then  Harald  said :  "  It  is  a  fleet  of  Danish 
ships,  and  the  sun  strikes  on  the  gilded  dragon  -  heads :  furl 
the  sail,  and  take  to  the  oars."  The  Norse  ships  were  heavy 
with  plunder,  while  the  Danish  ships  were  light.  Harald  first 
threw  overboard  light  wood,  and  placed  upon  it  clothing  and 
goods  of  the  Danes,  that  they  might  see  it  and  pick  it  up ; 
then  he  threw  overboard  his  provisions,  and  lastly  his  pris 
oners.  The  Danes  stopped  for  these,  and  the  Norwegians 
got  off  with  the  rest.  It  was  only  the  chance  of  war  that 
saved  the  fugitives ;  had  they  risked  a  battle  and  lost  it,  they 
would  have  been  captured,  killed,  or  drowned.  Yet  it  was 
not  easy  to  drown  them ;  they  rarely  went  far  from  shore,  and 
they  were,  moreover,  swimmers  from  childhood,  even  in  the  icy 
waters  of  the  North,  and  they  had  the  art,  in  swimming,  of 
hiding  their  heads  beneath  their  floating  shields,  so  that  it 
was  hard  to  find  them.  They  were  full  of  devices.  It  is 
recorded  of  one  of  them,  for  instance,  that  he  always  carried 
tinder  in  a  walnut  shell,  enclosed  in  a  ball  of  wax,  so  that,  no 
matter  how  long  submerged,  he  could  make  a  fire  on  reach 
ing  shore. 


THE  VISIT  OF    THE  VIKINGS.  35 

How  were  these  rovers  armed  and  dressed  ?  They  fought 
with  stones,  arrows,  and  spears;  they  had  grappling-irons  on 
board,  with  which  to  draw  other  vessels  to  them ;  and  the 
fighting  men  were  posted  on  the  high  bows  and  sterns,  which 
sometimes  had  scaffoldings  or  even  castles  on  them,  so  that 
missiles  could  be  thrown  down  on  other  vessels.  As  to  their 
appearance  on  land,  it  is  recorded  that  when  Sweinke  and  his 
five  hundred  men  came  to  a  "thing,''  or  council,  in  Norway, 
all  were  clad  in  iron,  with  their  weapons  bright,  and  they 
were  so  well  armed  that  they  looked  like  pieces  of  shining 
ice.  Other  men  present  were  clad  in  leather  cloaks,  with  hal 
berds  on  their  shoulders  and  steel  caps  on  their  heads.  Si 
gurd,  the  king's  messenger,  wore  a  scarlet  coat  and  a  blue 
coat  over  it,  and  he  rose  and  told  Sweinke  that  unless  he 
obeyed  the  king's  orders  he  should  be  driven  out  of  the  coun 
try.  Then  Sweinke  rose,  threw  off  his  steel  helmet,  and  re 
torted  on  him : 

"Thou  useless  fellow,  with  a  coat  without  arms  and  a  kirtle  with  skirts, 
wilt  thou  drive  me  out  of  the  country?  Formerly  thou  wast  not  so  mighty, 
and  thy  pride  was  less  when  King  Hakon,  my  foster-son,  was  in  life.  Then 
thou  wast  as  frightened  as  a  mouse  in  a  mouse-trap,  and  hid  thyself  under  a 
heap  of  clothes,  like  a  dog  on  board  of  a  ship.  Thou  wast  thrust  into  a 
leather  bag  like  corn  into  a  sack,  and  driven  from  house  to  farm  like  a  year- 
old  colt ;  and  dost  thou  dare  to  drive  me  from  the  land  ?  Let  us  stand  up 
and  attack  him  !" 

Then  they  attacked,  and  Sigurd  escaped  with  great  diffi 
culty. 

The  leaders  and  kings  wore  often  rich  and  costly  gar 
ments.  When  King  Magnus  landed  in  Ireland,  with  his  mar 
shal  Eyvind,  to  carry  away  cattle,  he  had  a  helmet  on  his  head, 
a  red  shield  in  which  was  inlaid  a  gilded  lion,  and  was  girt 
with  the  sword  "  Legbiter,"  of  which  the  hilt  was  of  tooth 
(ivory),  and  the  hand-grip  wound  about  with  gold  thread,  and 
the  sword  was  extremely  sharp.  "  In  his  hand  he  had  a  short 
spear,  and  a  red  silk  short  cloak  over  his  coat,  on  which,  both 


36  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

before  and  behind,  was  embroidered  a  lion  in  yellow  silk,  and 
all  men  acknowledged  that  they  had  never  seen  a  brisker, 
statelier  man.  Eyvind  had  also  a  red  silk  coat  like  the  king's, 
and  he  also  was  a  stout,  handsome,  warlike  man."  But  the 
ascendency  of  the  chief  did  not  come  from  his  garments ;  it 
consisted  in  personal  power  of  mind  and  prowess  of  body,  and 
when  these  decayed,  the  command  was  gone.  Such  were  the 
fierce,  frank  men  who,  as  is  claimed,  stretched  their  wander 
ings  over  the  western  sea,  and  at  last  reached  Vinland — that 
is  to  say,  the  continent  of  North  America. 

What  led  the  Northmen  to  this  continent  ?  A  trivial  cir 
cumstance  first  drew  them  westward,  after  they  had  already 
colonized  Iceland  and  made  it  their  home.  Those  who  have 
visited  the  Smithsonian  Institution  at  Washington  will  remem 
ber  the  great  carved  door-posts,  ornamented  with  heads,  which 
are  used  by  the  Indians  of  the  north-west  coasts.  It  is  to  a 
pair  of  posts  somewhat  like  these,  called  by  the  Northmen 
setstokka,  or  seat-posts,  that  we  owe  the  discovery  of  Greenland, 
and  afterwards  of  Vinland.  When  the  Northmen  removed 
from  one  place  to  another,  they  threw  these  seat -posts  into 
the  sea  on  approaching  the  shore,  and  wherever  the  posts 
went  aground  there  they  dwelt.  Erik  the  Red,  a  wandering 
Norseman  who  was  dwelling  in  Iceland,  had  lent  his  posts 
to  a  friend,  and  could  not  get  them  back.  This  led  to  a  quar 
rel,  and  Erik  was  declared  an  outlaw.  He  went  to  sea,  and 
discovered  Greenland,  which  he  thus  called  because,  he  said, 
"people  will  be  attracted  thither  if  the  land  has  a  good  name." 
There  he  took  up  his  abode,  leading  a  colony  with  him,  about 
A.D.  986,  fifteen  years  before  Christianity  was  established  by 
law  in  Iceland.  The  colony  prospered,  and  there  is  much 
evidence  that  the  climate  of  Greenland  was  then  milder,  and 
that  it  supported  a  far  larger  population  than  now.  The 
ruined  churches  of  Greenland  still  testify  to  a  period  of  civ 
ilization  quite  beyond  the  present. 


THE  VISIT  OF    THE  VIKINGS.  37 

With  Erik  the  Red  went  a  man  named  Heriulf  Bardson. 
Biorni,  or  Bjarni,  this  Heriulfs  son,  was  absent  from  home 
when  they  left ;  he  was  himself  a  rover,  but  had  always  spent 
his  winters  with  his  father,  and  resolved  to  follow  him  to 
Greenland,  though  he  warned  his  men  that  the  voyage  was 
imprudent,  since  none  of  them  had  sailed  in  those  seas.  He 


OLD   NORSE   RUINS    IN   GREENLAND. 


sailed  westward,  was  lost  in  fogs,  and  at  last  came  to  a  land 
with  small  hills  covered  with  wood.  This  could  not,  he 
thought,  be  Greenland  ;  so  he  turned  about,  and  leaving  this 
land  to  larboard,  "  let  the  foot  of  the  sail  look  towards  land," 
that  is,  sailed  away  from  land.  He  came  to  another  land,  flat 
and  still  wooded.  Then  he  sailed  seaward  with  a  south-west 
wind  for  two  days,  when  they  saw  another  land,  but  thought 
it  could  not  be  Greenland  because  there  were  no  glaciers. 
The  sailors  wished  to  land  for  wood  and  water,  but  Bjarni 
would  not  —  "  but  he  got  some  hard  speeches  for  that  from  his 
sailors,"  the  saga,  or  legend,  says.  Then  they  sailed  out  to 
sea  with  a  south-west  wind  for  three  days,  and  saw  a  third 
l^nd,  mountainous  and  with  glaciers,  and  seeming  to  be  an 
\island;  and  .after  this  they  sailed  four  days  more,  and  reached 
Greenland,  where  Bjarni  found  his  father,  and  lived  with  him 
ever  after. 

But   it  seems    that  the    adventurous  countrymen  of   Bjarni 
were  quite  displeased  with  him  for  not  exploring  farther;  and 


38  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

at  last  a  daring  man  named  Leif  bought  Bjarni's  ship,  and  set 
sail,  with  thirty -five  companions,  to  explore  southward  and 
westward.  First  they  reached  the  land  which  Bjarni  had  last 
seen,  the  high  island  with  the  glaciers,  and  this  they  called 
Helluland,  or  "  Flat-stone  Land."  Then  they  came  to  another 
land  which  they  called  Marckland,  or  "Woodland."  Then 
they  sailed  two  days  with  a  north-east  wind,  and  came  to  a 
land  with  an  island  north  of  it;  and  landing  on  this  island, 
they  found  sweet  dew  on  the  grass,  which  has  been  explained 
as  the  honey -dew  sometimes  left  by  an  insect  called  aphis. 
This  pleased  them,  like  great  boys,  as  they  were;  then  they 
sailed  between  the  island  and  the  land;  then  the  ship  ran 
aground,  but  was  at  last  lifted  by  the  tide,  when  they  sailed 
up  a  river  and  into  a  lake ;  and  there  they  cast  anchor,  and 
brought  their  sleeping-cots  on  shore,  and  remained  a  long  time. 

They  built  houses  there  and  spent  the  winter;  there  were 
salmon  in  the  lake,  the  winter  was  very  mild,  and  day  and 
night  were  more  equal  than  in  Greenland.  They  explored 
the  land,  and  one  day  a  man  of  their  number,  Leif's  foster- 
brother,  named  Tyrker,  came  from  a  long  expedition  and  told 
Leif,  in  great  excitement,  that  he  had  some  news  for  him ;  he 
had  found  grape-vines  and  grapes.  "Can  that  be  true,  my 
foster-brother?"  said  Leif.  "Surely  it  is  true,"  he  said,  "for  I 
was  brought  up  where  there  is  no  want  of  grape-vines  and 
grapes  " — he  being  a  German.  The  next  day  they  filled  their 
long-boat  with  grapes,  and  in  the  spring  they  sailed  back  to 
Greenland  with  a  ship's  load  of  tree-trunks  —  much  needed 
there — and  with  the  news  of  the  newly  discovered  land,  called 
Vinland,  or  "  Wine-land."  Leif  was  ever  after  known  as  "  Leif 
the  Lucky,"  from  this  success. 

But  still  the  Norsemen  in  Greenland  thought  the  new  re 
gion  had  been  too  little  explored,  so  Thorwald,  Leif's  brother, 
took  the  same  ship,  and  made  a  third  trip,  with  thirty  men. 
He  reached  the  huts  the  other  party  had  built,  called  in  the 


THE  VISIT  OF   THE  VIKINGS.  39 

legends  Leifsbudir,  or  "  Leif  s  booths."  They  spent  two  win 
ters  there,  fishing  and  exploring,  and  in  the  second  summer 
their  ship  was  aground  under  a  ness,  or  cape,  to  the  north 
ward,  and  they  had  to  repair  it.  The  broken  keel  they  set 
up  on  the  ness  as  a  memorial,  and  called  it  Kialarness.  After 
wards  they  saw  some  of  the  natives  for  the  first  time,  and 
killed  all  but  one,  in  their  savage  way.  Soon  after  there 
came  forth  from  a  bay  "innumerable  skin -boats,"  and  attacked 
them.  The  men  on  board  were  what  they  called  "  Skraelings," 
or  dwarfs,  and  they  fought  with  arrows,  one  of  which  killed 
Thorwald,  and  he  was  buried,  with  a  cross  at  the  head  of  his 
grave,  on  a  cape  which  they  called  Krossaness,  or  "  Cross 
Cape."  The  saga  reminds  us  that  "  Greenland  was  then 
Christianized,  but  Erik  the  Red  had  died  before  Christianity 
came  thither." 

Thorwald's  men  went  back  to  Greenland  without  him, 
their  ship  being  loaded  with  grape-vines  and  grapes.  The 
next  expedition  to  Vinland  was  a  much  larger  one,  headed  by 
a  rich  man  from  Norway  named  Karlsefne,  who  had  dwelt 
with  Leif  in  Greenland,  and  had  been  persuaded  to  come  on 
this  enterprise.  He  brought  a  colony  of  sixty  men  and  five 
women,  and  they  had  cattle  and  provisions.  They  found  a 
place  where  a  river  ran  out  from  the  land,  and  through  a  lake 
into  the  sea;  one  could  not  enter  from  the  sea  except  at  high- 
water.  They  found  vines  growing,  and  fields  of  wild  wheat; 
there  were  fish  in  the  lake,  and  wild  beasts  in  the  woods. 
Here  they  established  themselves  at  a  place  called  Hop,  from 
the  Icelandic  word  kopa,  to  recede,  meaning  an  inlet  from  the 
ocean.  Here  they  dwelt,  and  during  the  first  summer  the 
natives  came  in  skin  boats  to  trade  with  them  —  a  race  de 
scribed  as  black  and  ill-favored,  with  large  eyes  and  broad 
cheeks,  and  with  coarse  hair  on  their  heads.  On  their  first 
visit  these  visitors  passed  near  the  cattle,  and  were  so  fright 
ened  by  the  bellowing  of  the  bull  that  they  ran  away  again. 


40  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

The  natives  brought  all  sorts  of  furs  to  sell,  and  wished  for 
weapons,  but  those  were  refused  by  Karlsefne,  who  had  a 
more  profitable  project,  which  the  legends  thus  describe :  "  He 
took  this  plan  —  he  bade  the  women  bring  out  their  dairy 
stuff  for  them  [milk,  butter,  and  the  like],  and  so  soon  as  the 
Skraelings  saw  this  they  would  have  that  and  nothing  more. 
Now  this  was  the  way  the  Skraelings  traded :  they  bore  off 
their  wares  in  their  stomachs,  but  Karlsefne  and  his  com 
panions  had  their  bags  and  skin  wares,  and  so  they  parted.'* 
This  happened  again,  and  then  one  of  the  Norsemen  killed 
a  native,  so  that  the  next  time  they  came  as  enemies,  armed 
with  slings,  and  raising  upon  a  pole  a  great  blue  ball,  which 
they  swung  at  the  Norsemen  with  great  noise.  It  may  have 
been  only  an  Eskimo  harpoon  with  a  bladder  attached,  but  it 
had  its  effect ;  the  Norsemen  were  terrified,  and  were  running 
away,  when  a  woman  named  Freydis,  daughter  of  Erik  the 
Red,  stopped  them  by  her  reproaches,  and  urged  them  on. 
"  Why  do  ye  run,"  she  said,  "  stout  men  as  ye  are,  before 
these  miserable  wretches,  whom  I  thought  ye  would  knock 
down  like  cattle  ?  If  I  had  weapons,  methinks  I  could  fight 
better  than  any  of  you."  With  this  she  took  up  a  sword  that 
lay  beside  a  dead  man,  the  fight  was  renewed,  and  the  Skrael 
ings  were  beaten  off. 

There  is  a  curious  account  of  one  "  large  and  handsome 
man,"  who  seemed  to  be'  the  leader  of  the  Skraelings.  One 
of  the  natives  took  up  an  axe,  a  thing  which  he  had  appar 
ently  never  seen  before,  and  struck  at  one  of  his  companions 
and  killed  him.  Upon  which  this  leader  took  the  axe  and 
threw  it  into  the  sea  in  terror,  and  after  this  they  all  retreat 
ed,  and  came  no  more.  Karlsefne's  wife  had  a  child  that  win 
ter  who  was  called  Snorri,  and  the  child  is  believed  to  have 
been  the  ancestor  of  some  famous  Scandinavians,  including 
Thorwaldsen  the  sculptor.  But  in  spring  Ihey  all  returned 
to  Greenland  with  a  load  of  valuable  timber,%nd  thence  went 


THE  VISIT  OF   THE  VIKINGS.  41 

to  Iceland,  so  that  Snorri  grew  up  there,  and  his  children 
after  him.  One  more  attempt  was  made  to  colonize  Vinland, 
but  it  failed  through  the  selfishness  of  a  woman  who  had  or 
ganized  it — the  same  Freydis  who  had  shown  so  much  cour 
age,  but  who  was  also  cruel  and  grasping;  and  after  her  re 
turn  to  Greenland,  perhaps  in  1013,  we  hear  no  more  of 
Vinland,  except  as  a  thing  of  the  past. 

There  are  full  accounts  of  all  these  events,  from  manu 
scripts  of  good  authority,  preserved  in  Iceland ;  the  chief  nar 
ratives  being  the  saga  of  Erik  the  Red  and  the  Karlsefne 
saga,  the  one  having  been  written  in  Greenland,  the  other  in 
Iceland.  These  have  been  repeatedly  translated  into  various 
languages,  and  their  most  accessible  form  in  English  is  in 
Beamish's  translation,  which  first  appeared  in  London  in  1841, 
and  has  lately  been  reprinted  by  the  Prince  Society  of  Bos 
ton,  under  the  editorship  of  Rev.  E.  F.  Slafter.  This  version 
is,  however,  incomplete,  and  is  also  less  vivid  and  graphic  than 
a  partial  one  which  appeared  in  the  Massachusetts  Quarterly 
Review  for  March,  1849,  by  James  Elliot  Cabot,  of  Brookline, 
Massachusetts.  There  are  half  a  dozen  other  references  of 
undoubted  authority  in  later  Norse  manuscripts  to  "  Vinland 
the  Good "  as  a  region  well  authenticated.  Mingled  with 
these  are  other  allusions  to  a  still  dimmer  and  more  shadowy 
land  beyond  Vinland,  and  called  "  Whiteman's  Land,"  or  "  Ire 
land  the  Mickle,"  a  land  said  to  be  inhabited  by  men  in  white 
garments,  who  raised  flags  or  poles.  But  this  is  too  remote 
and  uncertain  to  be  seriously  described. 

Such  is  the  Norse  legend  of  the  visit  of  the  Vikings.  But 
to  tell  the  tale  in  its  present  form  gives  very  little  impression 
of  the  startling  surprise  with  which  it  came  before  the  com 
munity  of  scholars  nearly  half  a  century  ago.  It  was  not  a 
new  story  to  the  Scandinavian  scholars:  the  learned  anti 
quary  Torfaeus  knew  almost  as  much  about  it  in  1707  as  we 
know  to-day.  But  when  Professor  Rafn  published,  in  1837, 


42  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

his  great  folio  volume  in  half  a  dozen  different  languages,  he 
thought  he  knew  a  great  deal  more  about  the  whole  affair 
than  was  actually  the  case,  for  he  mingled  the  Norse  legend 
with  the  Dighton  Rock,  and  the  Old  Mill  at  Newport,  and 
with  other  possible  memorials  of  the  Northmen  in  America 
— matters  which  have  since  turned  out  to  be  no  memorials  at 
all.  The  great  volume  of  "  Antiquitates  Americans  "  contains 
no  less  than  twelve  separate  engravings  of  the  Dighton  Rock, 
some  of  them  so  unlike  one  another  that  it  seems  impossible 
that  they  can  have  been  taken  from  the  same  inscription. 
Out  of  some  of  them  Dr.  Rafn  found  no  difficulty  in  decipher 
ing  the  name  of  Thorfinn  and  the  figures  CXXXL,  being  the 
number  of  Thorwald's  party.  Dr.  T.  A.  Webb,  then  secre 
tary  of  the  Rhode  Island  Historical  Society,  supplied  also  half 
a  dozen  other  inscriptions  from  rocks  in  Massachusetts  and 
Rhode  Island,  which  are  duly  figured  in  the  great  folio ;  and 
another  member  of  the  Danish  Historical  Society,  taking  Dn 
Webb's  statements  as  a  basis,  expanded  them  with  what  seems 
like  deliberate  ingenuity,  but  was  more  likely  simple  blunder 
ing.  Dr.  Webb  stated,  for  instance,  that  there  were  "  in  the 
western  part  of  our  country  numerous  and  extensive  mounds, 
similar  to  the  tumuli  that  are  so  often  met  with  in  Scandi 
navia,  Russia,  and  Tartary,  also  the  remains  of  fortifications, 
etc."  Mr.  Beamish,  with  the  usual  vague  notion  of  Europeans 
as  to  American  geography,  first  reads  "  county  "  for  "  country," 
and  then  assigns  all  these  vast  remains  to  "  the  western  part 
of  the  county  of  Bristol,  in  the  State  of  Massachusetts."  And 
the  same  writer,  with  still  bolder  enterprise,  carrying  his  im 
aginary  traces  of  the  Northmen  into  South  America,  gives 
a  report  of  a  huge  column  discovered  near  Bahia,  in  Brazil, 
bearing  a  colossal  figure  with  the  hand  pointing  to  the  North- 
pole.  It  was  more  than  suspected  from  certain  inscriptions, 
according  to  Mr.  Beamish,  that  this  also  bore  a  Scandinavian 
origin.  Such  was  the  eager  temper  of  that  period  that  it  is 


THE  VISIT  OF   THE  VIKINGS. 


43 


THE    OLD   MILL   AT   NEWPORT,  R.  I. 


a  wonder  they  did  not  attribute  a  Scandinavian  origin  to 
Trenton  Falls  or  the  Mammoth  Cave  of  Kentucky. 

For  some  reason  or  other  the  Old  Mill  at  Newport  did 
not  play  a  prominent  part  in  the  great  volume  of  Professor 
Rafn,  but  he  published  a 
pamphlet  at  Copenhagen  in 
1841,  under  the  name  of 
"  Americas  Opdagelse,"  con 
taining  a  briefer  account  of 
the  discoveries,  and  this  con 
tains  no  less  than  seven  full- 
page  engravings  of  the  New 
port  structure,  all  intended 
to  prove  its  Norse  origin. 
But  all  these  fancies  are 
now  pretty  thoroughly  swept 

away.  The  Norse  origin  of  the  Old  Mill  has  found  no  sci 
entific  supporters  since  Rev.  C.  T.  Brooks  and  Dr.  Palfrey 
showed  that  there  was  just  such  a  mill  at  Chesterton,  England, 
the  very  region  from  which  Governor  Benedict  Arnold  came, 
who,  in  his  will,  made  in  1678,  spoke  of  it  as  "my  stone-built 
windmill,"  and  who  undoubtedly  copied  its  structure  from  the 
building  remembered  from  his  boyhood.  A  mere  glance  at 
two  recent  photographs  of  the  two  buildings  will  be  enough 
to  settle  the  question  for  most  readers. 

And  in  a  much  similar  way  the  Norse  origin  claimed  for 
the  Dighton  Rock  has  been  set  aside.  So  long  as  men  be 
lieved  with  Dr.  Webb  that  "  nowhere  throughout  our  wide 
spread  domain  is  a  single  instance  of  their  [the  Indians] 
having  recorded  their  deeds  or  history  on  stone."  it  was 
quite  natural  to  look  to  some  unknown  race  for  the  origin 
of  this  single  inscription.  But  now  when  the  volumes  of 
Western  exploration  are  full  of  inscriptions  whose  Indian  ori 
gin  is  undoubted,  this  view  has  fallen  wholly  into  disuse.  If 


44 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


we    put  side   by   side    a   representation   of  the   Dighton   Rock 
as   it    now   appears,  and   one    of  the   Indian   inscriptions  tran- 


STONE   WINDMILL   AT   CHESTERTON. 


scribed  in  New  Mexico  by  Lieutenant  Simpson,  we  can  hardly 
doubt  that  the  two  had  essentially  a  common  origin.  There 
are  the  same  crudely  executed  and  elongated  human  figures, 
and  the  same  series  of  crosses,  easily  interpreted,  when  hori 
zontal,  into  letters  and  figures. 

Another  rock,  supposed  by  some  to  be  a  memorial  of  the 
Northmen,  has  lately  been  described  and  figured.  It  lies 
upon  the  shore,  on  the  farm  of  Dr.  C.  H.  R.  Doringh,  with 
in  the  township  of  Bristol,  Rhode  Island.  Mr.  W.  J.  Miller, 
of  Bristol,  a  well-known  antiquarian,  gives  a  representation  of 
it  in  his  little  book  entitled  "  The  Wampanoag  Indians."  The 


THE   VISIT  OF   THE   VIKINGS. 


45 


rock  is  of  graywacke,  and  is  ten  and  a  half  by  six  and  a  half 
feet  in  length,  and  twenty-one  inches  thick.  It  is  only  bare 
at  low  tide,  and  the  surface  is  much  worn  by  the  waves. 
There  is  inscribed  on  it  a  boat,  with  a  series  of  lines  and  an 
gles,  the  whole  being  claimed  as  an  inscription,  and  the  theory 
of  Mr.  Miller  being  that  it  was  carved  by  some  sailor  left  in 
charge  of  a  boat  and  awaiting  his  companions.  Had  the  ac 
count  been  printed  in  1840,  it  would  have  furnished  the  whole 
Danish  Society  of  Antiquarians  with  a  great  argument,  and 
even  now  it  well  deserves  attention.  Yet  whoever  will  com 
pare  the  outline  of  the  »boat  with  the  Norse  ship  already 
figured  will  see  that  they  have  little  in  common  ;  and  almost 


THE  DIGHTON    ROCK. 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


THE   MOUNT   HOPE   BAY    INSCRIPTION. 


any    New    Mexican    inscription    will   show   in   different   places 
very  much  the  same  idle  combination  of  lines  and  angles. 

All  these  supposed  Norse  remains  being  ruled  out  of  the 
question,  we  must  draw  our  whole  evidence  from  the  Norse 

sagas  themselves.    On  this 

r—  \/  part   of   the    subject,  also, 

there  is  now  a  general 
consent  of  experts.  There 
can  scarcely  be  a  doubt 
that  the  Norsemen  at  an 
early  period  not  only  set 
tled  in  Greenland,  but  visited  lands  beyond  Greenland,  which 
lands  could  only  have  been  a  part  of  the  continent  of  North 
America.  This  Mr.  Bancroft  himself  concedes  as  probable. 
It  is  true  that  this  rests  on  the  sagas  alone,  and  that  these 
were  simply  oral  traditions,  written  down  perhaps  two  centuries 
after  the  events,  while  the  oldest  existing  manuscripts  are  dated 
two  centuries  later  still.  Most  of  the  early  history  of  Northern 
Europe,  however,  and  of  England  itself,  rests  upon  very  similar 
authority ;  and  there  is  no  reason  to  set  this  kind  of  testimony 
aside  merely  because  it 
relates  to  America.  But 
when  we  come  to  fix  the 
precise  topography  of 
their  explorations,  we 
have  very  few  data  left 
after  the  Dighton  Rock 
and  the  Newport  Mill 
are  struck  out  of  the  evi-  HIEROGLYPHICS  ON  ROCK  IN  NEW  MEXICO. 
dence. 

We  can  argue  nothing  from  their  rate  of  sailing,  for  we 
do  not  know  how  often  they  sailed  all  night,  and  "how  often 
they  followed  the  usual  Norse  method  of  anchoring  at  dark. 
Little  weight  is  now  attached  to  the  alleged  astronomical  cal- 


THE  VISIT  OF   THE  VIKINGS. 


47 


culation  in  the  sagas,  to  the  effect  that  in  Vinland,  on  the 
shortest  day,  the  sun  rose  at  half -past  seven  and  set  at  half- 
past  four,  which  would  show  the  place  to  have  been  some 
where  in  the  neighborhood  of  Mount  Hope  Bay.  Closer 
observation  has  shown  that  no  such  assertion  as  that  here 
made  is  to  be  found  in  the  Norse  narrative.  The  Norsemen 
did  not  divide  their  time  into  days  and  hours,  but,  like  sailors, 
into  "  watches."  A  watch  included  three  hours,  and  the  le- 


HIEROGLYPHICS   ON    INSCRIPTION   ROCK,  NEW    MEXICO. 


gends  only  say  that  the  sun  rose,  on  that  day,  within  the  watch 
called  "  Dagmalastad,"  and  set  in  that  called  "  Eyktarstad " 
(Sol  hovdi  thar  Eyktarstad  ok  Dagmalastad  um  Skamdegi). 
This  fact  greatly  impressed  the  Norse  imagination,  as  in 
Iceland  it  rose  and  set  within  one  and  the  same  watch.  But 
this  gives  no  means  for  any  precise  calculation,  inasmuch  as 
there  is  a  range  of  six  hours  between  the  longest  and  the 
shortest  estimate  that  might  be  founded  upon  it.  As  a  con 
sequence,  Rafn's  calculation  puts  Vinland  about  the  latitude 


48  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

of  41°,  or  Mount  Hope  Bay,  while  Torfaeus  places  it  about 
49°,  or  near  Newfoundland.  It  is,  after  all,  as  has  been  re 
marked  by  Dr.  William  Everett,  about  as  definite  as  if  the 
sagas  had  told  us  that  in  Vinland  daylight  lasted  from  break 
fast-time  till  the  middle  of  the  afternoon. 

The  argument  founded  on  climate  is  inconclusive.  Wild 
grapes  grow  in  Rhode  Island,  and  they  also  grow  in  Canada 
and  Nova  Scotia.  The  Northmen  found  no  frost  during  their 
first  winter  in  Vinland ;  but  it  is  also  recorded  that  in  Iceland 
during  a  certain  winter  there  was  no  snow.  If  the  climate  of 
Greenland  was  milder  in  those  days,  so  it  may  have  been  with 
Labrador.  Coincidences  of  name  amount  to  almost  as  little. 
The  name  of  Wood's  Hole,  on  the  coast  of  Massachusetts,  has 
been  lately  altered  to  Wood's  Holl,  to  correspond  to  the  Norse 
name  for  hill.  Mount  Hope  Bay,  commonly  derived  from  the 
Indian  Montaup,  has  been  carried  farther  back,  and  has  been 
claimed  to  represent  the  Hop  where  Leif's  booths  were  built, 
although  the  same  Indian  word  occurs  in  many  other  places. 
All  history  shows  that  nothing  is  less  to  be  relied  upon  than 
these  analogies.  How  unanswerable  seemed  the  suggestion 
of  the  old  traveller  Howell,  that  the  words  "elf"  and  "goblin" 
represented  the  long  strife  between  Guelf  and  Ghibelline  in 
Italy,  until  it  turned  out  that  "  elf "  and  "  goblin  "  were  much 
the  older  words  ! 

There  are  scarcely  two  interpreters  who  precisely  agree 
as  to  the  places  visited  by  the  Northmen,  and  those  who  are 
surest  in  their  opinions  are  usually  those  who  live  farthest 
from  the  points  described.  Professor  Rafn  found  Vinland 
along  the  coast  of  New  England ;  Professor  Rask,  his  con 
temporary,  found  it  in  Nova  Scotia,  Newfoundland,  or  Labra 
dor.  The  latter  urged,  with  much  reason,  that  it  was  far 
easier  to  discover  wild  grapes  in  Nova  Scotia  than  to  meet 
Eskimo  in  what  is  now  Rhode  Island ;  and  that  the  whole 
story  of  the  terror  of  the  Skraelings  before  the  bull  indicates 


THE   VISIT  OF    THE  VIKINGS.  49 

an  island  people  like  those  of  Newfoundland  or  Prince  Edward 
Island,  and  certainly  not  the  New  England  Indians,  who  were 
familiar  with  the  moose,  and  might  have  seen  the  buffalo.  He 
might  also  have  added,  what  was  first  pointed  out  by  Mr.  J. 
Elliot  Cabot,  that  the  repeated  voyages  from  Greenland  to 
Vinland,  and  the  perfect  facility  with  which  successive  explor 
ers  found  the  newly  discovered  region,  indicate  some  spot 
much  nearer  Greenland  than  Mount  Hope  Bay,  which  would 
have  required  six  hundred  miles  of  intricate  and  dangerous 
coast  navigation,  without  chart  or  compass,  in  order  to  reach 
it.  Again,  Rafn  finds  it  easy  to  place  the  site  of  Leifs  booths 
at  Bristol,  Rhode  Island,  and  M.  Gravier,  a  Frenchman,  writ 
ing  so  lately  as  1874,  has  not  a  doubt  upon  the  subject.  But 
a  sail  from  Fall  River  to  Newport,  or  indeed  a  mere  study  of 
the  map,  will  show  any  dispassionate  man  that  the  description 
given  by  the  sagas  has  hardly  anything  in  common  with  the 
Rhode  Island  locality.  The  sagas  describe  an  inland  lake 
communicating  with  the  sea  by  a  shallow  river  only  accessible 
at  high  tide,  whereas  Mount  Hope  Bay  is  a  broad  expanse  of 
salt  water  opening  into  the  still  wider  gulf  of  Narraganset 
Bay,  and  communicating  with  the  sea  by  a  passage  wide  and 
deep  enough  for  the  navies  of  the  world  to  enter.  Even  sup 
posing  the  Northmen  to  have  found  their  way  in  through 
what  is  called  the  Seaconnet  passage,  the  description  does 
not  apply  much  better  to  that.  Even  if  it  did,  these  hardy 
sailors  must  have  recognized,  the  moment  they  reached  the 
bay  itself,  that  they  had  come  in  at  the  back  door,  not  at  the 
front ;  and  the  main  access  to  the  ocean  must  instantly  have 
revealed  itself.  It  suffices  to  say  that  the  whole  interpreta 
tion,  which  seems  so  easy  to  transatlantic  writers,  is  utterly 
rejected  by  Professor  Henry  Mitchell,  of  the  Coast  Survey,  in 
a  manuscript  report  which  lies  before  me.  And  the  same 
vagueness  and  indefiniteness  mark  all  the  descriptions  of  the 
Northmen.  Nothing  is  more  difficult  than  to  depict  in  words 

4 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


with  any  accuracy  in  an  unscientific  age  the  features  of  a  low 
and  monotonous  sea-shore ;  and  this,  with  the  changes  under 
gone  by  the  coast  of  southern  New  England  during  nine  hun 
dred  years,  renders  the  identification  of  any  spot  visited  by 
the  Northmen  practically  impossible. 

The  Maine  Historical  Society  has  reprinted  a  map  of  the 
North  Atlantic,  made  by  the   Icelander  Sigurd  Stephanius  in 

the  year  1570,  and  pre 
served  by  the  Scandina 
vian  historian  Torfaeus  in 
his  "  Gronlandia  Antiqua  " 
(1706).  In  this  map  all 
that  is  south  of  Green 
land,  including  Vinland,  is 
a  part  of  one  continent. 
Helluland  and  Marckland 
appear  upon  it,  and  Vin 
land  is  a  promontory  ex 
tending  forth  from  the 
land  of  the  Skraelings. 
But  whether  this  abrupt 
cape  is  meant  to  represent 
Cape  Cod,  as  some  would 
urge,  or  the  far  more  con 
spicuous  headlands  of  Newfoundland  or  Nova  Scotia,  must  be 
left  to  conjecture.  The  fact  that  it  is  in  the  same  latitude 
with  the  southern  part  of  England  would  indicate  the  more 
northern  situation ;  and  it  is  to  be  noted  that  all  these  prom 
ontories  are  depicted  as  mountainous — a  character  which  the 
Northmen,  accustomed  to  the  heights  of  Iceland  and  Green 
land,  could  hardly  have  applied  to  what  must  have  seemed  to 
them  the  trivial  elevations  of  Cape  Cod  or  Mount  Hope  Bay. 
A  sand-hill  two  hundred  feet  high  would  hardly  have  done 
duty  for  a  mountain  on  a  map  made  in  Iceland.  But  the  cha- 


NORTH   ATLANTIC,  BY   THE   ICELANDER 
SIGURD   STEPHANIUS,   IN    1570. 


THE  VISIT  OF    THE  VIKINGS.  51 

otic  geography  of  the  whole  map — in  which  England  is  thrown 
out  into  mid-ocean,  Iceland  appears  nearly  as  large  as  Eng 
land,  one  of  the  Shetland  Islands  is  as  large  as  Ireland,  and 
the  imaginary  island  of  Frisland  is  fully  displayed — affords  a 
sufficient  warning  against  taking  too  literally  any  details  con 
tained  in  the  sagas.  If  learned  Icelanders  were  so  utterly 
unable,  five  centuries  later,  to  depict  the  Europe  which  they 
knew  so  well,  how  could  their  less  learned  ancestors  have 
given  any  accurate  topography  of  the  America  which  they 
knew  so  little  ?  They  did  not  give  it ;  but  the  same  activity 
of  imagination  which  enabled  Professor  Rafn  to  find  the  name 
of  Thorwald  in  an  Indian  inscription  might  well  permit  him 
to  identify  Krossaness  with  Sound  Point,  and  Vinland  with 
Nantucket. 

Unless  authentic  Norse  remains  are  hereafter  unearthed, 
there  is  very  little  hope  of  ever  identifying  a  single  spot  where 
the  Vikings  landed,  or  a  single  inlet  ever  furrowed  by  their 
keels.  But  that  these  bold  rovers  in  sailing  westward  discov 
ered  lands  beyond  Greenland  is  as  sure  as  anything  can  be 
that  rests  on  sagas  and  traditions  only  —  as  sure,  that  is,  as 
most  things  in  the  earliest  annals  of  Europe.  They  discov 
ered  America;  what  part  of  America  is  of  little  consequence. 
They  discovered  it  without  clear  intention,  and  by  a  series  of 
what  might  almost  be  called  coasting  voyages,  stretching  from 
Norway  to  Scotland,  from  Scotland  to  Iceland,  and  thence  to 
Greenland,  and  at  last  to  the  North  American  continent,  each 
passage  extending  but  a  few  hundred  miles,  though  those  miles 
lay  through  stormy  and  icy  seas.  They  made  these  discov 
eries  simply  as  adventurers.  There  is  nothing  in  their  achieve 
ment  worthy  to  be  compared  with  the  great  deed  of  Columbus, 
when  he  formed  with  deliberate  dignity  a  heroic  purpose,  and 
set  sail  across  an  unknown  sea  upon  the  faith  of  a  conviction. 
As  compared  with  him  and  his  companions,  the  Vikings  seem 
but  boys  beside  men. 


III. 

THE   SPANISH  DISCO  VERERS. 

TWENTY- FIVE  years  ago  the  American  minister  at  the 
court  of  Turin  was  conversing  with  a  young  Italian  of 
high  rank  from  the  island  of  Sardinia,  who  had  come  to  Turin 
for  education.  This  young  man  remarked  to  the  American 
minister,  Mr.  Kinney,  that  he  had  lately  heard  about  a  great 
Spanish  or  Italian  navigator  who  had  sailed  westward  from 
Spain,  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  with  the  hope 
of  making  discoveries.  Did  Mr.  Kinney  know  what  had  be 
come  of  that  adventurer;  had  he  been  heard  of  again,  and  if 
so,  what  had  he  accomplished  ?  This,  it  seemed,  was  all  that 
was  known  in  Sardinia  respecting  the  fame  and  deeds  of  Co 
lumbus.  The  world  at  large  is  a  little  better  off,  and  can  at 
least  tell  what  Columbus  found.  But  whether  he  really  first 
found  it,  and  is  entitled  to  the  name  of  discoverer,  has  of  late 
been  treated  as  an  unsettled  question.  He  long  since  lost  the 
opportunity  of  giving  his  name  to  the  new  continent ;  there 
have  been  hot  disputes  as  to  whether  he  really  first  reached 
it.  Who  knows  but  that  the  world  will  end  by  doubting  if 
there  ever  was  such  a  person  as  Columbus  at  all  ? 

What  does  discovery  mean  ?  in  what  does  it  consist  ?  If 
the  Vikings  had  already  visited  the  American  shore,  could  it 
be  rediscovered?  Was  it  not  easy  for  Columbus  to  visit  Ice 
land,  to  hear  the  legends  of  the  Vikings,  and  to  follow  in  their 
path  ?  These  are  questions  that  have  lately  been  often  asked. 


THE   SPANISH  DISCOVERERS. 


53 


The  answer  is  that  Columbus  probably  visited   Iceland,  possi 
bly  heard  the  Viking  legends,  but  certainly  did  not  follow  in 


CHRISTOPHER   COLUMBUS. 


the  path  they  indicated.     To  follow  them  would  have  been  to 
make  a  series  of  successive  voyages,  as  they  did,  each  a  sort 


54  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

of  coasting  trip,  from  Norway  to  Iceland,  from  Iceland  to 
Greenland,  from  Greenland  to  Vinland.  To  follow  them  would 
have  been  to  steer  north  -  northwest,  whereas  his  glory  lies  in 
the  fact  that  he  sailed  due  west  into  the  open  sea,  and  found 
America.  His  will  begins,  "  In  the  name  of  the  Most  Holy 
Trinity  who  inspired  me  with  the  idea,  and  afterwards  con 
firmed  me  in  it,  that  by  traversing  the  ocean  westwardly"  etc. 
Thus  accurately  did  he  state  his  own  title  to  fame.  So  far 
as  climate  and  weather  were  concerned,  he  actually  incurred 
less  risk  than  the  Northmen ;  but  when  we  consider  that  he 
sailed  directly  out  across  an  unknown  ocean  on  the  faith  of  a 
theory,  his  deed  was  incomparably  greater. 

There  is  one  strong  reason  for  believing  that  Columbus 
knew  but  vaguely  of  their  voyage,  or  did  not  know  of  it  at  all, 
or  did  not  connect  the  Vinland  they  found  with  the  India  he 
sought.  This  is  the  fact,  that  he  never,  so  far  as  we  know, 
used  their  success  as  an  argument  in  trying  to  persuade  other 
people.  For  eight  years,  by  his  own  statement,  he  was  en 
deavoring  to  convert  men  to  his  project.  "  For  eight  years," 
he  says,  "  I  was  torn  with  disputes,  and  my  project  was  matter 
of  mockery  "  (cosa  de  burla).  During  this  time  he  never  made 
one  convert  among  those  best  qualified,  either  through  theory 
or  practice,  to  form  an  opinion — "  not  a  pilot,  nor  a  sailor,  nor 
a  philosopher,  nor  any  kind  of  scientific  man,"  he  says,  "  put 
any  faith  in  it."  Now  these  were  precisely  the  men  whom  the 
story  of  Vinland,  if  he  had  been  able  to  quote  it,  would  have 
convinced.  The  fact  that  they  were  not  convinced  shows  that 
they  were  not  told  the  story ;  and  if  Columbus  did  not  tell  it, 
the  reason  must  have  been  either  that  he  did  not  know  it,  or 
did  not  attach  much  weight  to  it.  He  would  have  told  it  if 
only  to  shorten  his  own  labor  in  argument ;  for  in  converting 
practical  men  an  ounce  of  Vinland  would  have  been  worth  a 
pound  of  cosmography.  Certainly  he  knew  how  to  deal  with 
individual  minds,  and  he  could  well  adapt  his  arguments  to 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS.  55 

each  one.  The  way  in  which  he  managed  his  sailors  on  his 
voyage  shows  that  he  sought  all  sorts  of  means  to  command 
confidence.  He  would  have  treated  his  hearers  to  all  the  tales 
in  the  sagas  if  that  would  have  helped  the  matter;  the  Skrael- 
ings  and  the  unipeds,  or  one-legged  men,  of  the  Norse  legends, 
would  have  been  discussed  by  many  a  Genoese  or  Portuguese 
fireside ;  and  Columbus  might  never  have  needed  to  trouble 
Ferdinand  and  Isabella  with  his  tale.  We  may  safely  assume 
that  if  he  knew  the  traditions  about  Vinland,  they  made  no 
great  impression  on  his  mind. 

Why  should  they  have  made  much  impression  ?  The 
Northmen  themselves  had  had  five  hundred  years  to  forget 
Vinland,  and  had  employed  the  time  pretty  effectually  for  that 
purpose.  None  of  them  had  continued  to  go  there.  As  it 
met  the  ears  of  Columbus,  Vinland  may  have  seemed  but  one 
more  island  in  the  northern  seas,  and  very  remote  indeed  from 
that  gorgeous  India  which  Marco  Polo  had  described,  and 
which  was  the  subject  of  so  many  dreams.  More  than  all,  Co- 
lurnbus  was  a  man  of  abstract  thought,  whose  nature  it  was  to 
proceed  upon  theories,  and  he  fortified  himself  with  the  tradi 
tions  of  philosophers,  authorities  of  whom  the  Northmen  had 
never  heard.  That  one  saying  of  the  cosmographer  Aliaco, 
quoting  Aristotle,  had  more  weight  with  one  like  Columbus 
than  a  ship's  crew  of  Vikings  would  have  had :  "  Aristotle 
holds  that  there  is  but  a  narrow  sea  \_parvum  mare\  between 
the  western  points  of  Spain  and  the  eastern  border  of  India." 
Ferdinand  Columbus  tells  us  how  much  influence  that  sen 
tence  had  with  his  father;  but  we  should  have  known  it  at 
any  rate. 

When  he  finally  set  sail  (August  3,  1492),  it  was  with  the 
distinct  knowledge  that  he  should  have  a  hard  time  of  it  un 
less  Aristotle's  "narrow  sea"  proved  very  narrow  indeed.  In 
stead  of  extending  his  knowledge  to  the  sailors  and  to  the 
young  adventurers  who  sailed  with  him,  he  must  keep  them 


56  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

in  the  dark,  must  mislead  them  about  the  variations  of  the 
magnetic  needle,  and  must  keep  a  double  log-book  of  his  daily 
progress,  putting  down  the  actual  distance  sailed,  and  then  a 
smaller  distance  to  tell  the  men,  in  order  to  prevent  them 
from  being  more  homesick  than  the  day  before.  It  was  hard 
enough,  at  any  rate.  The  sea  into  which  they  sailed  was 
known  as  the  Sea  of  Darkness — Mare  Tenebrosum,  the  Bahr- 
al-Zulmat  of  the  Arabians.  It  had  been  described  by  an  Arab 
geographer  a  century  before  as  "  a  vast  and  boundless  ocean, 
on  which  ships  dare  not  venture  out  of  sight  of  land,  for  even 
if  they  knew  the  direction  of  the  winds,  they  would  not  know 
whither  those  winds  would  carry  them,  and  as  there  is  no  in 
habited  country  beyond,  they  would  run  great  risk  of  being 
lost  in  mist  and  vapor."  We  must  remember  that  at  that  pe 
riod  the  telescope  and  quadrant  were  not  yet  invented,  and  the 
Copernican  system  was  undiscovered.  It  was  a  time  when  the 
compass  itself  was  so  imperfectly  known  that  its  variations 
were  not  recognized ;  when  Mercator's  system  of  charts,  now 
held  so  essential  to  the  use  even  of  the  compass,  was  not  de 
vised.  The  instrument  was  of  itself  an  object  of  dread  among 
the  ignorant,  as  being  connected  with  enchantment.  One  of 
its  Spanish  names,  bruxula,  was  derived  from  bruxo,  a  sorcerer. 
No  one  knew  the  exact  shape  of  the  earth ;  Columbus 
believed  in  his  third  voyage  that  it  was  pear-shaped.  Some 
where  near  the  stalk  of  the  pear,  he  thought,  was  the  Earthly 
Paradise ;  somewhere  else  there  was  Chaos  or  Erebus.  In 
sailing  over  those  waters,  no  one  knew  what  a  day  might 
bring  forth.  Above  them,  it  was  thought  by  some,  hovered 
the  gigantic  bird  known  as  the  roc — familiar  to  the  readers 
of  "  Sindbad  the  Sailor  " — which  was  large  enough  to  grasp  a 
ship  with  all  its  crew  and  fly  away  with  it  into  upper  air. 
Columbus  himself  described  three  mermaids,  and  reported  men 
with  tails,  men  with  dogs'  heads,  and  one-eyed  men.  In  the 
history  of  Peter  Martyr,  one  of  those  who  first  recorded  the 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS. 


57 


discoveries  of  Columbus,  the  innocent  cetacean  called  the 
manatee  became  a  half -mythological  monster  covered  with 
knobbed  scales,  and  with  a  head  like  an  ox ;  it  could  carry 
a  dozen  men  on  its  back,  and  was  kind  and  gentle  to  all 
but  Christians,  to  whom  it  had  an  especial  aversion.  Philo- 


THE   VISION    OF   COLUMBUS. 
[From  De  Bry.] 


ponus  has  delineated  the   manatee,  and    De    Bry  has   pictured 
the  imaginary  beings  that  Columbus  saw. 

'  The  old  maps  peopled  the  ocean  depths  with  yet  more 
frightful  and  mysterious  figures ;  and  the  Arab  geographers, 
prohibited  by  their  religion  from  portraying  animals  real  or 
imaginary,  supplied  their  place  by  images  even  more  terrific, 
as  that  of  the  black  and  clinched  hand  of  Satan  rising  above 


58  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

the  waves  in  the  guise  of  an  overhanging  rock,  and  ready  to 
grasp  the  daring  sailors  who  profaned  the  Sea  of  Darkness 
with  their  presence.  When  we  think  how  superstition,  gradu 
ally  retiring  from  the  world,  still  keeps  its  grasp  upon  the 
sailors  of  to-day,  we  can  imagine  how  it  must  have  ruled  the 
ignorant  seamen  of  Columbus.  The  thoughtful,  lonely  ways 
of  their  admiral  made  him  only  an  object  of  terror;  they 
yielded  to  him  with  wonderful  submission,  but  it  was  the 
homage  of  fear.  The  terror  reached  its  climax  when  they 
entered  the  vast  "Sargasso  Sea,"  a  region  of  Gulf -weed  —  a 
tract  of  ocean  as  large  as  France,  Humboldt  says — through 
which  they  sailed.  Here  at  last,  they  thought,  was  the  home 
of  all  the  monsters  depicted  in  the  charts,  who  might  at  any 
moment  rear  their  distorted  forms  from  the  snaky  sea-weed, 

"  Like  demons'  endlong  tresses,  they  sailed  through." 

At  the  very  best,  they  said,  it  was  an  inundated  land  (tierras 
anegadas) — probably  the  fabled  sunken  island  Atlantis,  of  which 
they  had  heard ;  whose  slime,  tradition  said,  made  it  impossi 
ble  to  explore  that  sea,  and  on  whose  submerged  shallows 
they  might  at  any  time  be  hopelessly  swamped  or  entangled. 
"  Are  there  no  graves  at  home,"  they  asked  each  other,  accord 
ing  to  Herrera,  "  that  we  should  be  brought  here  to  die  ?" 
The  trade -winds,  afterwards  called  by  the  friars  "winds  of 
mercy,"  because  they  aided  in  the  discovery  of  the  New 
World,  were  only  winds  of  despair  to  the  sailors.  They  be 
lieved  that  the  ships  were  sailing  down  an  inclined  slope,  and 
that  to  return  would  be  impossible,  since  it  blew  always  from 
home.  There  was  little  to  do  in  the  way  of  trimming  sails, 
for  they  sailed  almost  on  a  parallel  of  latitude  from  the  Ca 
naries  to  the  Bahamas.  Their  severest  labor  was  in  pumping 
out  the  leaky  ships.  The  young  adventurers  remained  listless 
ly  on  deck,  or  played  the  then  fashionable  game  of  primero, 


wmt  /DANISH  Bisce  VERERS.  59 

and  heard  incredulously  the  daily  reports  told  by  Columbus 
of  the  rate  of  sailing.  They  would  have  been  still  more  in 
credulous  had  they  known  the  truth.  "  They  sighed  and 
wept,"  Herrera  says,  "  and  every  hour  seemed  like  a  year." 

The  same  Spanish  annalist  compares  Columbus  to  St. 
Christopher  in  the  legend  bearing  the  infant  Christ  across 
the  stream  on  his  shoulders ;  and  the  explorer  was  often 
painted  in  that  character  in  those  days.  But  the  weight  that 
Columbus  had  to  bear  up  was  a  wearisome  and  unworthy  load. 
Sometimes  they  plotted  to  throw  him  overboard  by  a  manoeu 
vre  (con  disimulacion,  Herrera  says),  intending  to  say  that  he 
fell  in  while  star-gazing.  But  he,  according  to  Peter  Martyr, 
dealt  with  them  now  by  winning  words,  now  by  encouraging 
their  hopes  (blandis  modo  verbis,  ampla  spe  modo).  If  they 
thought  they  saw  land,  he  encouraged  them  to  sing  an  an 
them  ;  when  it  proved  to  be  but  cloud,  he  held  out  the  hope 
of  land  to-morrow.  They  had  sailed  August  3,  1492,  and 
when  they  had  been  out  two  months  (October  3d),  he  refused 
to  beat  about  in  search  of  land,  though  he  thought  they  were 
near  it,  but  he  would  press  straight  through  to  the  Indies. 
Sometimes  there  came  a  contrary  wind,  and  Columbus  was 
cheered  by  it,  for  it  would  convince  his  men  that  the  wind 
did  not  always  blow  one  way,  and  that  by  patient  waiting 
they  could  yet  return  to  Spain. 

As  the  days  went  on,  the  signs  of  land  increased,  but  very 
slowly.  When  we  think  of  the  intense  impatience  of  the  pas 
sengers  on  an  ocean  steamer  after  they  have  been  ten  long 
days  on  the  water,  even  though  they  know  precisely  where 
they  are,  and  where  they  are  going,  and  that  they  are  driven 
by  mechanical  forces  stronger  than  winds  or  waves,  we  can 
imagine  something  of  the  feelings  of  Columbus  and  his  crew 
as  the  third  month  wore  on.  Still  there  was  no  sign  of  hope 
but  a  pelican  to  -  day  and  a  crab  to  -  morrow ;  or  a  drizzling 
rain  without  wind — a  combination  which  was  supposed  to  in- 


60  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES.       • 

dicate  nearness  to  the  shore.  There  has  scarcely  been  a  mo 
ment  in  the  history  of  the  race  more  full  of  solemn  conse 
quences  than  that  evening  hour  when,  after  finding  a  carved 
stick  and  a  hawthorn  branch,  Columbus  watched  from  the 
deck  in  the  momentary  expectation  of  some  glimpse  of  land. 
The  first  shore  light  is  a  signal  of  success  and  triumph  to 
sailors  who  cross  the  Atlantic  every  three  weeks.  What  then 
was  it  to  the  patient  commander  who  was  looking  for  the  first 
gleam  from  an  unknown  world  ? 

The  picturesque  old  tale  can  never  be  told  in  better  words 
than  those  in  which  the  chronicler  Herrera  narrates  it:  "And 
Christopher  Columbus,  being  now  sure  that  he  was  not  far 
off,  as  the  night  came  on,  after  singing  the  '  Salve  Regina,' 
as  is  usual  with  mariners,  addressed  them  all  and  said  that 
since  God  had  given  them  grace  to  make  so  long  a  voyage 
in  safety,  and  since  the  signs  of  land  were  becoming  steadily 
more  frequent,  he  would  beg  them  to  keep  watch  all  night 
And  they  knew  well  that  the  first  chapter  of  the  orders  that 
he  had  issued  to  them  on  leaving  Castile  provided  that  after 
sailing  seven  hundred  leagues  without  making  land,  they  should 
only  sail  thenceforth  from  the  following  midnight  to  the  next 
day ;  and  that  they  should  pass  that  time  in  prayer,  because 
he  trusted  in  God  that  during  that  night  they  should  discover 
land.  And  that  besides  the  ten  thousand  maravedis  that  their 
Highnesses  had  promised  to  him  who  should  make  the  first 
discovery,  he  would  give,  for  his  part,  a  velvet  jerkin." 

It  seems  like  putting  some  confusion  into  men's  minds  to 
set  them  thinking  at  one  and  the  same  time  of  a  new  world 
and  a  velvet  jerkin ;  but,  after  all,  the  prize  was  never  awarded, 
for  Columbus  himself  was  the  victor.  The  vessels  of  those 
days  had  often  a  high  structure  like  a  castle  at  bow  and  stern 
— whence  our  word  forecastle  for  the  forward  part  of  the  ship 
— and  we  can  fancy  the  sailors  and  young  adventurers  watch 
ing  from  one  of  these  while  Columbus  watched  from  the  other. 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS.  6 1 

The  admiral  had  the  sharpest  eyes  or  the  highest  outlook,  and 
that  night  he  saw  a  light  which  seemed  to  move  on  the  dim 
horizon.  He  called  to  him  Pedro  Gutierrez,  who  saw  it  at 
once ;  he  called  Roderigo  Sanchez,  who  could  not  see  it  for 
some  time ;  but  at  last  all  three  perceived  it  beyond  doubt. 
"It  appeared  like  a  candle  that  was  raised  and  lowered.  The 


THE   LANDING  AT   GUANAHANI. 

admiral  did  not  doubt  its  being  a  real  light  or  its  being  on 
land ;  and  so  it  was :  it  was  borne  by  people  who  were  going 
from  one  cottage  to  another."  "He  saw  that  light  in  the 
midst  of  darkness,"  adds  the  devout  Herrera,  "  which  symbol 
ized  the  spirit  and  light  which  were  to  be  introduced  among 
these  savages."  This  sight  was  seen  at  about  ten  o'clock  in 
the  evening ;  and  at  two  o'clock  in  the  morning  land  was  act 
ually  seen  from  the  Pinta,  the  foremost  vessel,  by  a  sailor, 


62  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Rodrigo  de  Triana,  who,  poor  fellow,  never  got  the  promised 
reward,  and,  as  tradition  says,  went  to  Africa  and  became  a 
Mohammedan  in  despair. 

The  landing  of  Columbus  has  been  commemorated  by  the 
fine  design  of  Turner,  engraved  in  Rogers's  poems.  Columbus 
wore  complete  armor,  with  crimson  over  it,  and  carried  in  his 
hand  the  Spanish  flag,  with  its  ominous  hues  of  gold  and 
blood ;  his  captains  bore  each  a  banner  with  a  green  cross, 
and  the  initials  F.  and  Y.  for  "  Ferdinand  "  and  "  Ysabel,"  sur 
mounted  by  their  respective  crowns.  They  fell  upon  their 
knees ;  they  chanted  the  "  Te  Deum,"  and  then  with  due  legal 
formalities  took  possession  of  the  island  in  behalf  of  the  Span 
ish  sovereigns.  It  was  the  island  Guanahani,  which  Colum 
bus  rechristened  San  Salvador,  but  whose  precise  identity  has 
always  been  a  little  doubtful.  Navarrete  identified  it  with 
Turk's  Island ;  Humboldt  and  Irving  with  Cat  Island ;  Cap 
tain  Becher,  of  the  English  Hydrographic  Office,  wrote  a  book 
to  prove  that  it  was  Catling  Island ;  while  Captain  Fox  and 
Harrisse  —  the  latest  authority — believe  it  to  have  been  Ack- 
lin's  Key.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  island  which  made  the 
New  World  a  certainty  should  itself  remain  uncertain  of  iden 
tification  for  four  hundred  years. 

With  the  glory  and  beauty  of  that  entrance  of  European 
civilization  on  the  American  continent  there  came  also  the 
shame.  Columbus  saw  and  described  the  innocent  happiness, 
of  the  natives.  They  were  no  wild  savages,  no  cruel  barba 
rians.  They  had  good  faces,  he  says ;  they  neither  carried  nor 
understood  weapons,  not  even  swords ;  they  were  generous  and 
courteous ;  "  very  gentle,  without  knowing  what  evil  is,  without 
killing,  without  stealing  "  (muy  mansos,  y  sin  saber  que  sea  mal, 
ni  matar  a  otros,  ni  prender}.  They  were  poor,  but  their 
houses  were  clean ;  and  they  had  in  them  certain  statues  in 
female  form,  and  certain  heads  in  the  shape  of  masks  well 
executed.  "  I  do  not  know,"  he  says,  in  Navarrete's  account,. 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS.  63 

"whether  these  are  employed  for  adornment  or  worship"  (per 
hermosura  6  adoran).  The  remains  of  Aztec  and  Maya  civili 
zation  seem  less  exceptional,  when  we  find  among  these  first- 
seen  aborigines  the  traces  of  a  feeling  for  art. 

Columbus  seems  to  have  begun  with  that  peculiar  mixture 
of  kindness  and  contempt  which  the  best  among  civilized  men 
are  apt  to  show  towards  savages.  "  Because,"  he  said,  "  they 
showed  much  kindliness  for  us,  and  because  I.  knew  that  they 
would  be  more  easily  made  Christians  through  love  than  fear, 
I  gave  to  some  of  them  some  colored  caps,  and  some  strings 
of  glass  beads  for  their  necks,  and  many  other  trifles,  with 
which  they  were  delighted,  and  were  so  entirely  ours  that  it 
was  a  marvel  to  see."  There  is  a  certain  disproportion  here 
between  the  motive  and  the  action.  These  innocent  savages 
gave  him  a  new  world  for  Castile  and  Leon,  and  he  gave  them 
some  glass  beads  and  little  red  caps.  If  this  had  been  the 
worst  of  the  bargain  it  would  have  been  no  great  matter.  The 
tragedy  begins  when  we  find  this  same  high-minded  admiral 
writing  home  to  their  Spanish  Majesties  in  his  very  first  letter 
that  he  shall  be  able  to  supply  them  with  all  the  gold  they 
need,  with  spices,  cotton,  mastic,  aloes,  rhubarb,  cinnamon,  and 
slaves;  "slaves,  as  many  of  these  idolaters  as  their  Highnesses 
shall  command  to  be  shipped"  (esclavos  quanta  mandaran  car- 
gar  y  seran  de  los  ydolatres}.  Thus  ended  the  visions  of  those 
simple  natives  who,  when  the  Europeans  first  arrived,  had  run 
from  house  to  house,  crying  aloud,  "  Come,  come  and  see  the 
people  from  heaven  "  (la  gente  del  cielo).  Some  of  them  lived 
to  suspect  that  the  bearded  visitors  had  quite  a  different 
origin. 

But  Columbus  shared  the  cruel  prejudices  of  his  age ;  he 
only  rose  above  its  scientific  ignorance.  That  was  a  fine  an 
swer  made  by  him  when  asked,  in  the  council  called  by  King 
Ferdinand,  how  he  knew  that  the  western  limit  of  the  Atlan 
tic  was  formed  by  the  coasts  of  Asia.  "  If  indeed,"  said  he, 

n  A 


64  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

"  the  Atlantic  has  other  limits  in  that  direction  than  the  lands 
of  Asia,  it  is  no  less  necessary  that  they  should  be  discovered, 
and  I  will  discover  them."  He  probably  died  without  the 
knowledge  that  he  had  found  a  new  continent,  but  this  answer 
shows  the  true  spirit  of  the  great  captain.  Columbus  has  been 
the  subject  of  much  discussion.  He  has  been  glorified  into 
something  like  sainthood  by  such  Roman  Catholic  eulogists 
as  Roselly  de  Lorges,  and  has  been  attacked  .with  merciless 
vituperation  by  such  writers  as  Goodrich ;  but  time  does  not 
easily  dim  the  essential  greatness  of  the  man.  Through  him 
the  Old  and  New  worlds  were  linked  together  for  good  or 
for  evil,  and  once  united,  they  never  could  be  separated. 

There  was  another  Spanish  voyager  whose  name  will  al 
ways  be  closely  joined  with  that  of  Columbus,  and  who  is  still 
regarded  by  many  persons  as  having  unjustly  defrauded  his 
greater  predecessor,  inasmuch  as  it  was  he,  not  Columbus,  who 
gave  his  name  to  the  New  World.  Unlike  Columbus,  Amerigo 
Vespucci  was  never  imprisoned,  enchained,  or  impoverished, 
and  was  thus  perhaps  the  happier  of  the  two  during  his  life, 
though  Columbus  himself  wrote  of  him :  "  Fortune  has  been 
adverse  to  him  as  she  has  to  many  others."  Since  his  death 
his  fate  has  been  reversed,  and  he  has  suffered  far  more  than 
Columbus  at  the  hands  of  posterity.  The  very  fact  that  his 
name  was  applied  to  the  American  continent  caused  many  to 
regard  him  as  but  a  base  and  malignant  man.  It  was  believed, 
moreover,  down  to  the  time  when  Irving  wrote,  that  Vespucci's 
alleged  voyage  of  1497  was  a  fabrication,  and  that  he  did  not 
really  reach  the  mainland  of  South  America  until  1499,  where 
as  Columbus  reached  it  the  year  before.  But  the  elaborate 
works  of  Varnhagen  have  changed  the  opinion  of  scholars  on 
this  point,  and  it  is  now  believed  that  Vespucci  reached  the 
southern  half  of  the  continent  in  the  same  year  when  Cabot 
first  reached  the  northern.  If  this  be  so,  it  turns  out  not  to 
be  quite  so  unjust,  after  all,  that  his  name  should  have  been 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS.  65 

given  to  the  continent,  for  he  really  was  the  first  to  attain  and 
describe  it  definitely,  although  it  may  justly  be  said  that  after 
Columbus  had  reached  the  outlying  islands  all  else  was  but 
a  question  of  time. 

The  works  of  Varnhagen,  published  partly  at  Lima  and 
partly  at  Vienna  and  Paris,  are  costly  and  elaborate ;  they 
include  the  minutest  investigations  as  to  the  text  of  all  the 
letters,  proved  or  reported,  of  Vespucci,  and  the  most  careful 
investigation  of  all  internal  evidence  bearing  on  the  authen 
ticity  of  those  documents.  His  conclusion  is  that  Vespucci's 
first  voyage  was  made  in  1497-8,  as  he  claimed;  that  he 
reached  Honduras,  and  coasted  all  along  the  shores  of  Yu 
catan,  of  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  and  of  Florida,  thus  proving 
Cuba  to  be  an  island,  when  Columbus  still  held  it  to  be 
part  of  the  mainland ;  and  that  he  had  reached  Cape  Canav 
eral  before  he  quitted  the  shores  and  set  sail  for  Portugal. 
The  land  which  he  discovered  he  called  "  The  Land  of  the 
Holy  Cross,"  and  he  believed  it  to  be  a  promontory  of  Asia. 

His  discoveries  attracted  much  attention  in  Germany,  and 
it  was  a  geographer  named  Waldsee-Miiller  who  first  printed, 
in  1507,  one  of  his  letters  at  the  little  town  of  St.  Die,  in 
Lorraine.  This  same  author,  believing  the  "  Land  of  the  Holy 
Cross "  to  be  a  new  quarter  of  the  globe  discovered  by  Ves 
pucci  (alia  quarto,  pars  per  Americanum  Vespucium  .  .  .  inventa], 
suggested,  in  a  book  called  "  Cosmographiae  Introductio,"  and 
published  in  1507,  the  year  after  the  death  of  Columbus,  that 
this  new  land  sjlould  be  named  for  Americus,  since  Europe 
and  Asia  had  women's  names  (Amerigen  quasi  Americi  terram 
sive  Americam  dicendam  cum  et  Europa  et  Asia  a  mulieribus 
sua  sortita  sint  nomina).  It  is  curious  to  read  this  sentence  in 
the  quaint  clear  type  of  that  little  book,  copies  of  which  may 
be  found  in  the  Harvard  College  library,  and  in  other  Ameri 
can  collections,  and  to  think  that  every  corner  of  this  vast 
double  continent  now  owes  its  name  to  what  was  perhaps  a 

5 


66 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


random  suggestion  of  one  obscure  German.  The  use  of  the 
title  gradually  spread,  after  this  suggestion,  and  apparently  be 
cause  it  pleased  the  public  ear ;  but  no  two  geographers  agreed 


DA   VINCI  S   MAPPEMONDE. 

[By  permission  of  the  Society  of  Antiquaries.] 


as  to  the  shape  of  the  land  it  represented.  Indeed,  Waldsee- 
Muller,  a  man  who  was  not  content  with  one  hard  name  for 
himself,  but  must  needs  have  two — being  called  in  Latin  Hy- 
lacomylus — seems  not  to  have  been  quite  sure  what  name  the 
newly  discovered  lands  should  have,  after  all.  Six  years  after 
he  had  suggested  the  name  America,  he  printed  (in  1513)  for 
an  edition  of  Ptolemy  a  chart  called  "  Tabula  Terre  Nove," 
on  which  the  name  of  America  does  not  appear,  but  there  is 
represented  a  southern  continent  called  "  Terra  Incognita," 
with  an  express  inscription  saying  that  it  was  discovered  by 
Columbus.  This  shows  in  what  an  uncertain  way  the  bap- 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS. 


67 


tism  was  given.  The  earliest  manuscript  map  yet  known  to 
bear  the  name  "  America "  is  in  a  collection  of  drawings  by 
Leonardo  da  Vinci,  now  preserved  in  England,  this  being  prob 
ably  made  in  1513-14.  It  was  published  in  the  London  Arch- 
czologia,  and  a  portion  of  it  is  here  reproduced.  The  earliest 
engraved  map  bearing  the  name  was  made  at  Vienna  in  1520. 
The  globe  of  Johann  Schoner,  also  made  in  1520,  and  still 
preserved  at  Nuremberg,  calls  what  is  now  Brazil,  "  America 
sive  [or]  Brazilia,"  thus  doubtfully  recognizing  the  new  name ; 
and  it  gives  what  is  now  known  to  be  the  northern  half  of 
the  continent  as  a  separate  island  under  the  name  of  Cuba. 
It  was  many  years  before  the  whole  was  correctly  figured  and 
comprehended  under  one  name.  Every  geographer  of  those 
days  distributed  the  supposed  islands  or  continents  of  the  New 
World  as  if  he  had  thrown  them  from  a  dice-box;  and  the 


North- America  JVom  ((K  6lobc 


A   CHART   OF   THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY. 


68  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

royal  personages  who  received  gold  and  slaves  from  these  new 
regions  generally  cared  very  little  to  know  the  particulars 
about  them.  The  young,  the  ardent,  and  the  reckless  sought 
them  for  adventure  ;  but  their  vague  and  barbarous  wonders 
seemed  to  princes  and  statesmen  very  secondary  matters  com 
pared  with  their  own  intrigues  and  treaties  and  royal  mar 
riages  and  endless  wars.  Vespucci  himself  may  not  have 


VASCO   NUNEZ    DE    BALBOA. 


known  when  his  name  was  first  used  for  the  baptism  of  his 
supposed  discoveries.  He  was  evidently  one  of  those  who 
have  more  greatness  thrust  upon  them  than  they  have  ever 
claimed  for  themselves. 

Another  of  the  great  Spanish  explorers  was  one  who  left 
Hispaniola,  it  is  said,  to  avoid  his  creditors,  and  then  left  the 
world  his  debtor  in  Darien.  Vasco  Nunez  de  Balboa  deserves 
to  be  remembered  as  one  who  at  least  tried  to  govern  the 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS. 


69 


Indians  with  humanity ;  yet  even  he  could  not  resist  putting 
them  to  the  torture,  by  his  own  confession  (dando  a  unos 
tormento),  in  order  to  discover  gold.  But  he  will  be  better 
remembered  as  the  first  civilized  discoverer  of  the  ocean 
that  covers  one -half  the  surface  of  the  globe.  Going  forty 
leagues  from  Darien  to  visit  an  Indian  chief  named  Comogre, 
the  Spaniards  received  a  sumptuous  present  of  gold,  and  as 
they  were  quarrelling  about  it,  the  eldest  son  of  the  chief 
grew  indignant  at  what  he  thought  their  childishness.  Dash 
ing  the  scales,  gold  and  all,  to  the  ground,  he  told  them  that 
he  could  show  them  a  country  rich  enough  in  gold  to  satisfy 
all  their  greediness;  that  it  lay  by  a  sea  on  which  there  were 
ships  almost  as  large  as  theirs,  and  that  he  could  guide  them 
thither  if  they  had  the  courage.  "  Our  captains,"  says  Peter 
Martyr,  "  marvelling  at  the  oration  of  this  naked  young  man, 
pondered  in  their  minds,  and  earnestly  considered  these  things." 
At  a  later  time  Balboa  not  only  considered,  but  acted,  and 
with  one  hundred  and  ninety  Spaniards,  besides  slaves  and 
hounds,  he  fought  his  way  through  forests  and  over  moun 
tains  southward.  Coming  near  the  mountain-top  whence  he 
might  expect,  as  the  Indians  had  assured  him,  to  behold  the 
sea,  he  bade  his  men  sit  upon  the  ground,  that  he  alone  might 
see  it  first.  Then  he  looked  upon  it, 

"  Silent  upon  a  peak  in  Darien." 

Before  him  rolled  "  the  Sea  of  the  South,"  as  it  was  then 
called  (la  Mar  del  Sur\  it  lying  southward  of  the  isthmus 
where  he  stood — as  any  map  will  show — and  its  vast  northern 
sweep  not  yet  being  known.  This  was  on  September  25, 
1513.  On  his  knees  Balboa  thanked  God  for  the  glory  of 
that  moment ;  then  called  his  men,  and  after  they  also  had 
given  thanks,  he  addressed  them,  reminding  them  of  what  the 
naked  prince  had  said,  and  pointing  out  that  as  the  promise 


70  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

of  the  southern  sea  had  been  fulfilled,  so  might  also  that  of 
the  kingdom  of  gold — as  it  was,  indeed,  fulfilled  long  after  in 
the  discovery  of  Peru  by  Pizarro,  who  was  one  of  his  com 
panions.  Then  they  sang  the  "  Te  Deum  Laudamus,"  and  a 
notary  drew  up  a  list  of  all  those  who  were  present,  sixty- 
seven  in  all,  that  it  might  be  known  who  had  joined  in  the 
great  achievement.  Then  he  took  formal  possession  of  the 
sea  and  all  that  was  in  it  in  behalf  of  Spain ;  he  cut  down 
trees,  made  crosses,  and  carved  upon  the  tree  trunks  the  names 
of  Spanish  kings.  Descending  to  the  sea,  some  days  later, 
with  his  men,  he  entered  it,  with  his  sword  on,  and  standing 
up  to  his  thighs  in  the  water,  declared  that  he  would  defend 
it  against  all  comers  as  a  possession  of  the  throne  of  Spain. 
Meanwhile  some  of  his  men  found  two  Indian  canoes,  and  for 
the  first  time  floated  on  that  unknown  sea.  To  Balboa  and 
his  companions  it  was  but  a  new  avenue  of  conquest ;  and 
Peter  Martyr  compares  him  to  Hannibal  showing  Italy  to  his 
soldiers  (ingentes  opes  sociis  pollicetur).  But  to  us,  who  think 
of  what  that  discovery  was,  it  has  a  grandeur  second  only  to 
the  moment  when  Columbus  saw  the  light  upon  the  shore. 
Columbus  discovered  what  he  thought  was  India,  but  Balboa 
proved  that  half  the  width  of  the  globe  still  separated  him 
from  India.  Columbus  discovered  a  new  land,  but  Balboa  a 
new  sea.  Seven  years  later  (1520),  Magellan  also  reached  it 
by  sailing  southward  and  passing  through  the  straits  that  bear 
his  name,  giving  to  the  great  ocean  the  name  of  Pacific,  from 
the  serene  weather  which  met  him  on  his  voyage. 

I  must  not  omit  to  mention  one  who  was  the  first  Euro 
pean  visitor  of  Florida,  except  as  Vespucci  and  others  had 
traced  the  outline  of  its  shores.  Yet  Ponce  de  Leon  made 
himself  immortal,  not,  like  Columbus,  by  what  he  dreamed 
and  discovered,  but  by  what  he  dreamed  and  never  found. 
Even  to  have  gone  in  search  of  the  Fountain  of  Youth  was 
an  event  that  so  arrested  the  human  imagination  as  to  have 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS. 


thrown  a  sort  of  halo  around  a  man  who  certainly  never 
reached  that  goal.  The  story  was  first  heard  among  the  In 
dians  of  Cuba  and  Hispaniola,  that  on  the  island  of  Bimini, 
one  of  the  Lucayos,  there  was  a  fountain  in  which  aged  men 
by  bathing  could  renew 
their  youth.  The  old  Eng 
lish  translation  of  Peter 
Martyr  describes  this  island 
as  one  "  in  the  which  there 
is  a  continual  spring  of  run 
ning  water  of  such  marvel 
lous  virtue  that,  the  water 
thereof  being  drunk,  perhaps 
with  some  diet,  maketh  old 
men  young."  Others  added 
that  on  a  neighboring  shore 
there  was  a  river  of  the 
same  magical  powers  —  a 
river  believed  by  many  to 
be  the  Jordan.  With  these 
visions  in  his  mind,  Ponce 

de  Leon,  sailing  in  command  of  three  brigantines  from  Porto 
Rico,  where  he  had  been  Governor,  touched  the  mainland, 
in  the  year  1512,  without  knowing  that  he  had  arrived  at  it. 
First  seeing  it  on  Easter  Sunday — a  day  which  the  Spaniards 
called  Pascua  Florida,  or  "  Flowery  Easter "-  -  he  gave  this 
name  to  the  newly  discovered  shore.  He  fancied  it  to  be  an 
island  whose  luxuriant  beauty  seemed  to  merit  this  glowing 
name — the  Indian  name  having  been  Cantio.  He  explored 
its  coast,  landed  near  what  is  now  called  St.  Augustine,  then 
returned  home,  and  on  the  way  delegated  one  of  his  captains, 
Juan  Perez,  to  seek  the  island  of  Bimini,  and  to  search  for 
the  Fountain  of  Youth  upon  it.  He  reached  the  island,  but 
achieved  nothing  more. 


PONCE    DE   LEON. 


72  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES, 

Long  after  these  days,  Herrera  tells  us,  both  Indians  and 
Spaniards  used  to  bathe  themselves  in  the  rivers  and  lakes  of 
all  that  region,  hoping  to  find  the  enchanted  waters.  Ponce 
de  Leon  once  again  visited  his  supposed  island,  and  was  mor 
tally  wounded  by  Indians  on  its  shores.  He  never  found  the 
Fountain  of  Youth,  but  he  found  Florida  ;  and  for  the  multi 
tudes  who  now  retreat  from  the  Northern  winter  to  that  blos 
soming  region,  it  may  seem  that  his  early  dreams  were  not 
so  unfounded  after  all. 

The  conquest  of  Mexico  by  Cortez  revived  anew  the  zeal 
of  Spanish  adventure,  and  a  new  expedition  to  Florida  was  or 
ganized,  which  led  ultimately  to  a  new  discovery — that  of  the 
first  land  route  across  the  width,  though  not  across  the  largest 
width,  of  North  America.  Alvar  Nunez,  commonly  called  Ca- 
beza  de  Vaca,  sailed  from  Spain  to  Florida,  in  1527,  as  treas 
urer  of  an  armada,  or  armed  fleet.  They  probably  landed  at 
what  is  now  called  Charlotte  Harbor,  in  Florida,  where  Cabeza 
de  Vaca  and  others  left  their  ships  and  went  into  the  interior 
as  far  as  what  is  now  Alabama.  Then  they  were  driven  back 
in  confusion,  and  reached  the  sea  in  utter  destitution  and  help 
lessness.  They  wished  to  build  ships  and  to  get  away ;  but 
they  had  neither  knowledge  nor  tools  nor  iron  nor  forge  nor 
tow  nor  resin  nor  rigging.  Yet  they  made  a  bellows  out  of 
deer-skins,  and  saws  out  of  stirrups,  resin  from  pine-trees,  sails 
from  their  shirts,  and  ropes  from  palmetto  leaves  and  from  the 
hair  of  their  horses'  tails.  Out  of  the  skins  of  the  legs  of 
horses,  taken  off  whole,  and  tanned,  they  made  bottles  to  carry 
water.  At  last  they  made  three  boats,  living  on  horse-meat 
until  these  were  ready.  Then  they  set  sail,  were  shipwrecked 
again  and  again,  went  through  all  sorts  of  sorrows,  lived  on 
half  a  handful  of  raw  maize  a  day  for  each  person,  and  were 
so  exhausted  that  at  one  time  all  but  Cabeza  de  Vaca  be 
came  unconscious,  and  were  restored  to  life  by  being  thrown 
into  the  water  on  the  capsizing  of  the  boat — a  tale  which,  it  is 


THE  SPANISH  DISCOVERERS.  73 

thought,  may  have  suggested  to  Coleridge  his  picture  of  the 
dead  sailors  coming  to  life  in  the  "  Ancient  Mariner." 

During  this  voyage  of  thirty  days  along  the  coast  they 
passed  a  place  where  a  great  fresh -water  river  ran  into  the 
sea,  and  they  dipped  up  fresh  water  to  drink ;  this  has  been 
supposed  to  be  the  Mississippi,  and  this  to  have  been  its  first 
discovery  by  white  men.  Cabeza  de  Vaca  must  at  any  rate 
have  reached  the  Lower  Mississippi  before  De  Soto,  and  have 
penetrated  the  northern  part  of  Mexico  before  Cortez,  for  he 
traversed  the  continent ;  and  after  eight  years  of  wandering, 
during  which  he  saw  many  novel  wonders,  including  the  buf 
falo,  he  found  himself  with  three  surviving  companions  at  the 
Spanish  settlements  on  the  Gulf  of  California,  near  the  river 
Culiacan.  The  narrative  of  Cabeza  de  Vaca  has  been  trans 
lated  in  full  by  Buckingham  Smith,  and  no  single  account  of 
Spanish  adventure  combines  so  many  amazing  incidents.  His 
pictures  of  the  country  traversed  are  accurate  and  complete ; 
and  he  had  every  conceivable  experience  with  the  Indians. 
He  was  a  slave  to  tribes  which  kept  white  captives  in  the 
most  abject  bondage,  and  every  day  put  arrows  to  their  breasts 
by  way  of  threat  for  the  morrow.  And  he  encountered  other 
tribes  which  brought  all  their  food  to  the  white  men  to  be 
breathed  upon  before  they  ate  it;  tribes  which  accompanied 
their  visitors  by  thousands  as  a  guard  of  honor  in  their  march 
through  the  country;  and  tribes  where  the  people  fetched  all 
the  goods  from  their  houses,  and  laid  them  before  the  strangers 
passing  by,  praying  them,  as  visitors  from  heaven,  to  accept 
their  choicest  possessions.  Yet  all  these  tales  are  combined 
with  descriptions  so  minute  and  occurrences  so  probable  that 
the  main  narrative  must  be  accepted  for  truth,  though  it  is 
impossible  to  tell  precisely  where  belief  should  begin  or  end. 

Such  were  some  of  the  early  Spanish  discoveries.  I  pass 
by  the  romantic  adventures  of  Cortez  and  Pizarro ;  they  were 
not  discoveries,  but  rather  conquests,  and  their  conquests  lay 


74  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

almost  wholly  beyond  the  borders  of  the  region  now  known 
as  the  United  States  of  America.  There  is  nothing  more 
picturesque  in  the  early  history  of  any  country  than  the  period 
of  Spanish  adventure;  nor  is  there  anything  sadder  than  the 
reverse  of  the  picture,  when  we  consider  the  wrongs  endured 
by  the  native  population.  Those  gentle  races  whom  Colum 
bus  found  so  hospitable  and  so  harmless  were  soon  crushed 
by  the  invaders,  and  the  more  powerful  tribes  of  the  main 
land  fared  no  better.  Weapons,  tortures,  fire,  and  even  blood 
hounds  fiercer  than  wild  beasts  were  used  against  them.  Span 
ish  writers  delight  to  describe  the  scars  and  wounds  of  these 
powerful  animals,  some  of  which  were  so  highly  esteemed  as 
to  be  rated  as  soldiers  under  their  own  names,  receiving  their 
full  allowance  of  food  as  such,  the  brute  being  almost  as  cruel 
and  formidable  as  a  man.  For  the  credit  of  civilization  and 
Christianity  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the  same  nation  and 
faith  which  furnished  the  persecutors  supplied  also  the  defend 
ers  and  the  narrators ;  and  most  of  what  we  know  of  the 
wrongs  of  the  natives  comes  through  the  protests,  not  always 
unavailing,  of  the  noble  ~Las  Casas.  This  good  bishop  un 
ceasingly  urged  upon  the  Spanish  rulers  a  policy  of  mercy. 
He  secured  milder  laws,  and,  as  bishop,  even  refused  the  sac 
raments  at  one  time  to  those  who  reduced  the  Indians  to 
slavery.  But  it  was  soon  plain  that  to  carry  out  this  policy 
would  be  practically  to  abolish  the  sacraments,  and  so  neither 
Church  nor  State  sustained  him.  He  has  left  us  the  imperish 
able  record  of  the  atrocities  he  could  not  repress.  "  With  mine 
own  eyes,"  he  says,  "  I  saw  kingdoms  as  full  of  people  as  hives 
are  of  bees,  and  now  where  are  they  ?  .  .  .  Almost  all  have 
perished.  The  innocent  blood  which  they  had  shed  cried  out 
for  vengeance ;  the  sighs,  the  tears,  of  so  many  victims  went 
up  to  God." 


IV. 

THE    OLD   ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 

PROBABLY  no  single  class  of  men  ever  made  a  greater 
change  in  the  fortunes  of  mankind  than  was  brought 
about  by  the  great  English  seamen  of  the  sixteenth  century. 
Some  of  them  were  slave-traders,  others  were  smugglers,  almost 
all  were  lawless  men  in  a  lawless  age ;  but  the  result  of  their 
daring  expeditions  was  to  alter  the  destiny  of  the  American 
continent,  and  therefore  the  career  of  the  human  race. 

In  the  year  1500,  Spain,  with  Portugal,  was  the  undisputed 
master  of  the  New  World.  At  the  present  time  neither  Spain 
nor  Portugal  owns  a  foot  of  land  upon  the  main  continent  of 
North  or  South  America.  The  destiny  of  the  whole  West 
ern  world  has  been  changed ;  and  throughout  almost  all  the 
northern  half  of  it  the  language,  the  institutions,  the  habits 
have  been  utterly  transformed.  At  the  time  when  Europe 
was  first  stirred  by  the  gold  and  the  glory  brought  from  the 
newly  discovered  America,  it  was  only  Spain,  and  in  a  small 
degree  Portugal,  that  reaped  the  harvest.  These  were  then 
the  two  great  maritime  and  colonizing  powers  of  Europe ;  and 
two  bulls  from  Pope  Alexander  VI.,  in  1493,  had  permitted 
them  to  divide  between  them  any  newly  discovered  portions  of 
the  globe.  Under  this  authority  Portugal  was  finally  permitted 
to  keep  Brazil — which  had  been  first  colonized  by  Portuguese 
— while  Spain  claimed  all  the  rest  of  the  continent.  To  this 
day  the  results  of  that  mutual  distribution  are  plainly  to  be  seen 


76  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

in  South  America.  Brazil  speaks  Portuguese,  while  almost  all 
the  rest  of  South  America,  with  Mexico,  speaks  Spanish.  But 
beyond  Mexico,  through  all  the  vast  length  and  breadth  of 
North  America,  English  is  the  prevailing  and  official  language. 
Throughout  that  region,  instead  of  the  Latin  race,  the  Ger 
manic  prevails ;  instead  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith,  the  Prot 
estant  preponderates.  There  has  not  been  in  the  history  of 
the  world  a  profounder  change  in  the  current  of  human  events. 
The  most  remarkable  circumstance  of  all  is,  that  this  change 
was  substantially  made  in  a  single  century  (the  sixteenth),  and 
was  made  mainly  through  a  single  class  of  men — the  old  Eng 
lish  seamen.  They  it  was  who  broke  the  power  of  Spain,  and 
changed  the  future  destinies  of  America. 

Other  nations  doubtless  co-operated.  Italy,  especially,  con 
tained  the  great  intellectual  and  cultivated  race  in  that  age, 
and  furnished  both  Spain  and  Portugal  again  and  again  with 
ships,  mathematical  instruments,  captains,  crews,  and  even 
bankers'  credits.  Spain  sent  across  the  Atlantic  ocean  Colum 
bus  and  Amerigo  Vespucci,  both  Italians ;  France  sent  Verraz- 
zano,  an  Italian ;  England  sent  Cabot,  an  Italian  by  citizenship 
and  probably  by  birth  and  blood.  For  centuries  the  descend 
ants  of  the  Northmen  confined  their  voyages  to  the  shores 
of  Western  Europe ;  they  knew  less  even  of  the  Mediterranean 
than  their  Viking  ancestors;  but  London  had  Italian  mer 
chants,  and  Bristol  had  Italian  sailors,  and  it  is  to  these  that 
we  owe  the  pioneer  explorations  of  the  Cabots.  We  must 
begin  with  these,  for  on  these  rested,  in  the  first  place,  all  the 
claims  of  England  to  the  North  American  coast. 

There  is  a  great  contrast  between  the  ample  knowledge 
that  we  have  about  the  career  of  Columbus  and  the  scanty  and 
contradictory  information  left  to  us  in  regard  to  the  Cabots. 
There  is  scarcely  a  fact  about  them  or  their  voyages  which  is 
known  with  complete  accuracy.  We  do  not  know  past  ques 
tion  their  nationality  or  their  birthdays,  or  the  dates  of  their 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 


77 


voyages ;  nor  do  we  always  know  by  which  of  the  family  those 
expeditions  were  made.  John  Cabot  was  long  regarded  as  a 
Genoese  who  came  to  England  to  reside ;  yet  it  has  been 
thought  possible  that  he  was  an  Englishman  who  was  merely 
naturalized  in  Venice  in  1476.  Sebastian  Cabot  is  now  pretty 
well  known  to  have  been  born  in  Venice,  yet  some  contem 
porary  authorities  describe 
him  as  a  native  of  Bristol. 
He  received  a  patent  from 
the  King  in  1496 — he  and 
his  father  and  brothers — 
to  make  discoveries ;  but 
the  only  engraved  map 
bearing  his  name  claims 
that  he  had  *already  found 
North  America  two  years 
before  that  date.  "John 
Cabot,  a  Venetian,  and 
Sebastian  Cabot,  his  son, 
discovered  this  region,  for 
merly  unknown,  in  the 
year  1494,  on  the  24th 
day  of  June,  at  the  fifth 
hour."  This  date  appears 

both  in  the  Latin  and  Spanish  inscriptions  on  the  unique 
copy  of  this  map  in  the  National  Library  at  Paris ;  the  map 
itself  having  been  engraved  in  1544,  but  only  having  come  to 
light  in  1843.  Its  authenticity  has  been  fully  discussed  by  M. 
D'Avezac,  who  believes  in  it,  and  by  Dr.  J.  G.  Kohl  and  Mr. 
Charles  Deane,  who  reject  it.  Mr.  R.  H.  Major,  of  the  British 
Museum,  has  made  the  ingenious  suggestion  that  the  date, 
which  is  in  Roman  letters,  was  originally  written  by  Cabot 
thus,  MCCCCXCVIL,  and  that  the  V,  being  carelessly  writ 
ten,  passed  for  II,  so  that  the  transcriber  wrote  1494  instead 


SEBASTIAN    CABOT,   BY    HOLBEIN. 


78  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

of  1497.  To  add  to  the  confusion,  there  is  evidence  in  the 
Spanish  State  papers  that  would,  if  credited,  carry  back  the 
first  voyages  of  the  Cabots  to  an  earlier  date  than  even  that 
of  Columbus.  The  Spanish  envoy  in  England  wrote  to  the 
sovereigns  Ferdinand  and  Isabella  (July  25,  1498),  that  the 
people  of  Bristol  had  been1  annually  sending  ships  for  seven 
years  "  in  search  of  the  island  Brazil  and  the  seven  cities,  ac 
cording  to  the  fancy  of  that  Italian  Cabot."  This  would 
imply  that  his  first  expedition  took  place  in  1491. 

But  it  is  quite  certain  that  this  carries  back  the  date  too 
far;  it  is  almost  certain,  also,  that  it  was  the  example  of  Co 
lumbus  which  aroused  Sebastian  Cabot  to  action.  In  one  of 
the  few  sentences  positively  attributed  to  him,  though  by  an 
unknown  witness,  he  says  of  the  first  voyage  of  Columbus : 
"  In  that  time  when  news  was  brought  that  Don* Christopher 
Colonus,  Genoese,  had  discovered  the  coasts  of  Indies,  whereof 
was  great  talk  in  all  the  court  of  King  Henry  VII.,  who  then 
reigned,  insomuch  that  all  men,  with  great  admiration,  affirmed 
it  to  be  a  thing  more  divine  than  human  to  sail  by  the  West 
unto  the  East,  where  spices  grow,  by  a  way  that  was  never 
known  before ;  by  this  fame  and  report  there  increased  in  my 
heart  a  great  flame  of  desire  to  attempt  some  notable  thing; 
and  understanding  by  the  sphere  (globe)  that  if  I  should  sail 
by  way  of  the  north-west  I  should  by  a  shorter  track  come 
into  India,  I  imparted  my  ideas  to  the  King." 

It  is  altogether  probable  that  the  map  of  Sebastian  Cabot 
gives  us  an  authentic  basis  of  knowledge  in  regard  to  the 
points  visited  by  him,  even  if  the  date  assigned  is  not  quite 
trustworthy.  His  "  Prima  Vista,"  or  point  first  seen — what 
sailors  call  landfall — was  in  that  case  Cape  Breton.  He  sailed 
along  Prince  Edward  Island,  then  known  as  the  Isle  of  St. 
John,  and  along  the  Gulf  of  St.  Lawrence,  perhaps  beyond 
the  site  where  Quebec  now  stands.  He  then  sailed  eastward 
to  Newfoundland,  which  he  described  as  consisting  of  many 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 


79 


islands;  then  southward  to  the  Chesapeake  River,  and  then 
homeward.  He  saw  first  the  bleakest  and  most  rugged  part 
of  the  North  American  coast.  If  he  saw  it  in  1494,  he  was 
its  first  known  civilized  discoverer;  if  he  saw  it  in  1497,  ^  *s 
possible  that  Amerigo  Vespucci  saw  Florida  in  that  same 
year,  but  very  likely  at  a  later  period  of  the  year. 

At  any  rate,  it  is  probable  that  in  1497  Sebastian  Cabot 
and  his  father  sailed  with  five  ships,  furnished  at  their  own 
cost,  but  upon  the  condition  that  they  should  pay  the  King 
one-fifth  of  all  profits.  They  were  authorized  by  the  King  to 


opposttam  Insulam  divt  Joannis  nommarunt,  qmppe  qua  boumni  die  Jesto  aivi 
Joannis  apertafuit .  .  .  Diversis  generibus  piscium  abundat,  horutn  autent  max 
ima,  ratio,  tst  auos  7/ulo-ux  Rtir.Cfilaos  (Morne\  a66ellat?' 


os  vulgus  Baccalaos  (Mornt}  appellat 


"Sebastian  Cabot,  Captain  and  Pilot  Major  of  His  Sacred  Imperial  Majesty, 
the  Emperor  Don  Carlos  the  5th  of  this  name,  and  King  our  Lord,  made  this  figure 
extended  in  plane  in  the  year  of  the  birth  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  1544." 


80  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

sail  "  to  all  parts,  countries,  and  seas  of  the  East,  of  the  West, 
and  of  the  North,  under  our  banners  and  ensigns  .  .  .  upon 
their  own  proper  costs  and  charges,  to  seek  out,  discover,  and 
find  whatsoever  Isles,  Countries,  Regions,  or  Provinces  of  the 
Heathen  and  Infidels  whatsoever  they  be,  and  in  whatsoever 
part  of  the  world,  which  before  this  time  have  been  unknown 
to  Christians."  They  were  also  permitted,  in  the  royal  phrase, 
"  to  set  up  our  banners  and  ensigns  in  every  village,  town, 
castle,  isle,  or  mainland  of  them  newly  found,  and  to  subdue, 
occupy,  and  possess  them."  In  addition  to  all  other  uncer 
tainties,  the  authorities  differ  greatly  as  to  whether  it  was  John 
or  Sebastian  who  should  have  the  honor  of  the  great  discov 
eries  made  by  this  expedition.  Hakluyt,  who  compiled  the 
well-known  collection  of  voyages,  and  who  was  born  a  few 
years  before  Sebastian  Cabot's  death,  and  was  the  best -in 
formed  Englishman  of  his  time  as  to  nautical  matters,  declares 
that  "  a  great  part  of  this  continent  as  well  as  of  the  islands 
was  first  discovered  for  the  King  of  England  by  Sebastian 
Gabote,  an  Englishman,  born  in  Bristow,  son  of  John  Gabote,  in 
1496."  Elsewhere  he  says:  "Columbus  first  saw  the  firme  land 
August  i,  1498,  but  Gabote  made  his  great  discovery  in  1496." 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  an  entry  in  the  Milan  archives 
(August,  1497):  "Some  months  ago  his  Majesty  Henry  VII. 
sent  out  a  Venetian,  who  is  a  very  good  mariner,  has  good 
skill  in  discovering  new  islands,  and  he  has  returned  safe,  and 
has  found  two  very  large  and  fertile  new  islands,  having  like 
wise  discovered  the  seven  cities,  400  leagues  from  England, 
on  the  western  passage."  This  names  neither  John  nor  Se 
bastian.  But  there  is  another  letter  in  the  Milan  archives, 
from  Lorenzo  Pasqualigo  to  his  brother  (dated  August  23, 
1497),  which  might  seem  to  settle  the  matter: 

"  This  Venetian  of  ours,  who  went  with  a  ship  from  Bristol  in  quest  of  new 
islands,  is  returned,  ^nd  says  that  seven  hundred  leagues  hence  he  discovered 
'  terra  firma,'  which  is  the  territory  of  the  Grand  Cham.  He  coasted  for  three 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  8 1 

hundred  leagues,  and  landed.  He  saw  no  human  being  whatsoever;  but  he 
has  brought  hither  to  the  King  certain  snares  which  had  been  set  to  catch 
game,  and  a  needle  for  making  nets  ;  he  also  found  some  felled  trees  ;  where 
fore  he  supposed  there  were  inhabitants,  and  returned  to  his  ship  in  alarm. 

"  He  was  three  months  on  the  voyage,  it  is  quite  certain;  and  coming  back, 
he  saw  two  islands  to  starboard,  but  would  not  land,  time  being  precious,  as 
he  was  short  of  provisions.  The  King  is  much  pleased  with  this  intelligence. 
He  says  that  the  tides  are  slack,  and  do  not  flow  as  they  do  here.  The  King 
has  promised  that  in  the  spring  he  shall  have  ten  ships,  armed  according  to 
his  own  fancy ;  and  at  his  request  he  has  conceded  to  him  all  the  prisoners, 
except  such  as  are  confined  for  high-treason,  to  man  them  with.  He  has  also 
given  him  money  wherewith  to  amuse  himself  till  then  ;  and  he  is  now  at 
Bristol  with  his  wife,  who  is  a  Venetian  woman,  and  with  his  sons.  His  name 
is  Zuan  Cabot,  and  they  call  him  the  great  admiral.  Vast  honor  is  paid  him, 
and  he  dresses  in  silk  ;  and  these  English  run  after  him  like  mad  people,  so 
that  he  can  enlist  as  many  of  them  as  he  pleases,  and  a  number  of  our  own 
rogues  besides. 

"The  discoverer  of  these  places  planted  on  his  new-found  land  a  large 
cross,  with  one  flag  of  England,  and  another  of  St.  Mark,  by  reason  of  his 
being  a  Venetian,  so  that  our  banner  has  floated  very  far  afield." 

But  the  librarian  of  the  Bristol  public  library,  Mr.  Nicholls, 
who  has  compiled  a  biography  of  Sebastian  Cabot,  points  out 
that  we  have  among  the  privy  purse  expenses  of  Henry  VII. 
some  entries  that  quite  change  this  story.  We  have  there 
recorded  the  very  sum  paid  to  John  Cabot  (August  10,  1497): 
"To  him  who  found  the  new  isle,  ,£io."  Fifty  dollars  was 
certainly  a  moderate  price  to  pay  for  the  whole  continent  of 
North  America,  and  certainly  not  sufficient  to  keep  "  the  great 
admiral "  and  his  Venetian  wife  in  silk  dresses  from  August 
to  the  following  spring.  This  evident  exaggeration  throws 
some  doubt  over  the  whole  tone  of  Signor  Pasqualigo's  narra 
tive  ;  yet  it  leaves  the  main  facts  untouched.  The  most  prob 
able  explanation  of  the  whole  contradiction  would  seem  to  be 
that  John  Cabot,  the  father,  was  the  leader  in  the  "great  voy 
age,"  and  won  most  fame  at»the  time,  but  that  his  death,  which 
happened  soon  after,  left  his  son  Sebastian  in  possession  of 
the  field,  after  which  time  Sebastian's  later  voyages  gave  most 
of  the  laurels  to  his  name.  At  any  rate,  they  belonged  to  the 

6 


82  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

name  of  Cabot,  and  this  will  probably  always  rank  next  to 
that  of  Columbus  in  popular  renown. 

On  the  death  of  his  father,  in  1498,  Sebastian  Cabot  was 
left,  according  to  Peter  Martyr,  very  rich  and  full  of  ambition 
(ricchissimo  et  di  grande  animo).  A  patent  for  another  voyage 
had  just  been  given  to  the  father,  and  the  son  made  use  of  it, 
though  some  doubt  still  exists  about  the  leadership  of  this 
expedition,  and  Mr.  Deane  thinks  that  John  Cabot  had  not 
yet  died,  but  went  in  command  of  it.  Cabot  went  expressly, 
Gomara  says,  "  to  know  what  manner  of  lands  these  Indies 
were  to  inhabit."  The  King's  privy  purse  account  shows  that 
bounties  were  given  to  those  who  enlisted  under  Cabot.  "  A 
reward  of  £2  to  Jas.  Carter  for  going  to  the  new  Isle,  also  to 
Thos.  Bradley  and  Launcelot  Thirkill,  going  to  the  new  Isle 
^30."  It  would  be  curious  to  know  if  these  sums  represent 
the  comparative  value  of  the  recruits ;  at  any  rate,  besides  two 
pounds'  worth  of  Carters  and  thirty  pounds'  worth  of  Bradleys 
and  Thirkills — these  being  respectable  merchants — Cabot  had 
•a  liberal  supply  of  men  upon  whose  heads  no  bounty  was  set, 
unless  to  pay  Jiim  for  removing  them.  Perkin  Warbeck's  in 
surrection  had  lately  been  suppressed,  and  had  filled  the  jails ; 
and  the  Venetian  calendar  tells  us  that  "  the  King  gave  Cabot 
the  sweepings  of  the  prisons."  It  was  poor  material  out  of 
which  to  make  colonists,  as  Captain  John  Smith  discovered 
more  than  a  century  later. 

What  with  jail -birds  and  others,  Cabot  took  with  him  in 
1498  three  hundred  men,  and  sailed  past  Iceland,  or  Island, 
as  it  was  then  called,  a  region  well  known  to  Bristol  (or  Bris- 
tow)  men,  and  not  likely  to  frighten  his  rather  untrustworthy 
ship's  company.  Then  he  mailed  for  Labrador,  which  he  called 
"  La  Tierra  de  los  Baccalaos,"  or,  briefly,  "  The  Baccalaos  " — 
this  word  meaning  simply  cod-fish.  He  said  that  he  found 
such  abundance  of  this  fish  as  to  hinder  the  sailing  of  his 
ships ;  that  he  found  seals  and  salmon  abundant  in  the  rivers 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  83 

and  bays,  and  bears  which  plunged  into  the  water  and  caught 
these  fish.  He  described  herds  of  reindeer,  and  men  like  Es 
kimo,  but  he  could  find  no  passage  to  India  among  the 
"  islands."  This  is  what  they  were  habitually  called  in  those 
days,  though  the  King  more  guardedly  described  the  new  re 
gion  in  his  patent  as  "  the  said  Londe  [land]  or  Isles."  Cabot 
left  some  colonists  on  the  bleak  shores  of  Labrador  or  New 
foundland,  then  returned  and  took  the  poor  fellows  on  board 
again ;  he  sailed  south,  following  the  coast  as  far  as  Florida, 
but  not  a  man  would  go  ashore  to  found  another  colony,  and 
he  returned  to  England  with  increased  fame  but  little  profit. 
Later  he  explored  Hudson  Bay,  looking  vainly  for  a  passage, 
while  the  King  was  still  giving  bounties  to  those  who  went 
to  "  the  new  island,"  or  sometimes  to  "  the  Newfounded  island," 
which  shows  how  easily  the  name  Newfoundland  came  to  be 
fixed  upon  one  part  of  the  region  explored. 

Sebastian  Cabot  was  certainly  in  one  sense  the  discoverer 
of  America:  it  was  he  who  first  made  sure  that  it  was  a  whol 
ly  new  and  unknown  continent.  In  his  early  voyages  he  had 
no  doubt  that  he  had  visited  India,  but  after  his  voyage  of 
1498  he  expressed  openly  his  disappointment  that  a  "  New 
Found  Land  "  of  most  inhospitable  aspect  lay  as  a  barrier  be 
tween  Europe  and  the  desired  Asia.  As  the  German  writer, 
Dr.  Asher,  has  well  said,  "  Cabot's  displeasure  involves  the 
scientific  discovery  of  a  new  world."  In  his  charts  North 
America  stands  as  a  separate  and  continuous  continent,  though 
doubtless  long  after  his  time  the  separate  islands  were  deline 
ated,  as  of  old,  by  others,  and  all  were  still  supposed  to  be  out 
lying  parts  of  Asia.  In  this,  as  in  other  respects,  Cabot  was 
better  appreciated  fifty  years  later  than  in  his  own  day.  His 
truthful  accounts  for  the  time  discouraged  further  enterprise 
in  the  same  direction.  "  They  that  seek  riches,"  said  Peter 
Martyr,  "must  not  go  to  the  frozen  North."  And  after  one 
or  two  ineffectual  undertakings  he  found  no  encouragement 


84  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

to  repeat  his  voyages  to  the  North  American  coast,  but  was 
sought  for  both  by  Spain  and  England  to  conduct  other  en 
terprises.  He  was  employed  in  .organizing  expeditions  to  the 
Brazils,  or  to  the  North-pole  by  way  of  Russia,  but  the  conti 
nent  he  had  discovered  was  left  unexplored.  He  was  esteemed 
as  a  skilful  mariner  and  one  who  had  held  high  official  sta 
tion  ;  he  died  dreaming  of  a  new  and  infallible  mode  of  dis 
covering  the  longitude  which  he  thought  had  been  revealed 
to  him  from  Heaven,  and  which  he  must  not  disclose.  The 
date  of  his  death,  like  that  of  his  birth,  is  unknown,  and  his 
burial-place  is  forgotten.  But  fifty  years  later,  when  English 
men  turned  again  for  a  different  object  towards  the  American 
continent,  they  remembered  his  early  achievements,  and  based 
on  them  a  claim  of  ownership  by  right  of  discovery.  Even 
then  they  were  so  little  appreciated  that  Lord  Bacon,  writing 
his  "  Reign  of  Henry  VII.,"  gives  but  three  or  four  sentences 
to  the  explorations  which  perhaps  exceed  in  real  importance 
all  else  that  happened  under  that  reign. 

For  about  half  a  century  the  English  seamen  hardly  crossed 
the  Atlantic.  When  they  began  again  it  was  because  they 
had  learned  from  Spain  to  engage  in  the  slave-trade.  In  that 
base  path  the  maritime  glory  of  England  found  its  revival. 
For  fifty  years  Englishmen  thought  of  the  New  World  only 
as  a  possession  of  Spain,  with  which  England  was  in  more  or 
less  friendly  alliance.  It  was  France,  not  England,  which 
showed  at  that  time  some  symptoms  of  a  wish  to  dispute  the 
rich  possession  with  Spain ;  and  after  the  voyage  of  Verraz- 
zano,  in  1521,  the  name  New  France  covered  much  of  North 
America  on  certain  maps  and  globes.  It  was  little  more  than 
a  name;  but  the  Breton  and  Gascon  fishermen  began  to  make 
trips  to  the  West  Indies,  mingling  more  or  less  of  smuggling 
and  piracy  with  their  avowed  pursuit,  and  the  English  followed 
them  —  learned  the  way  of  them,  in  fact.  Under  the  sway  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  England  was  again  P'rotestant,  not  Catholic ; 


'tr  N'T  rvr  F.RSITY 
THE  OLD  ENGLISH 


the  bigotry  of  Philip  II.  had  aroused  all  the  Protestant  nations 
against  him,  and  the  hereditary  hostility  of  France  made  the 
French  sailors  only  too  ready  to  act  as  pilots  and  seamen  for 
the  English.  Between  the  two  the  most  powerful  band  of 
buccaneers  and  adventurers  in  the  world  was  soon  let  loose 
upon  the  Spanish  settlements. 

It  is  a  melancholy  fact  that  the  voyage  which  first  opened 
the  West  Indian  seas  to  the  English  ships  was  a  slave-trading 
voyage.  The  discreditable  promise  made  by  Columbus  that 
America  should  supply  Europe  with  slaves  had  not  been  ful 
filled  ;  on  the  contrary,  the  demand  for  slaves  in  the  Spanish 
mines  and  the  Portuguese  plantations  was  greater  than  Amer 
ica  could  supply,  and  it  was  necessary  to  look  across  the  At 
lantic  for  it.  John  Hawkins,  an  experienced  seaman,  whose 
father  had  been  a  Guinea  trader  before  him,  took  a  cargo  of 
slaves  from  Guinea  in  1562,  and  sold  them  in  the  ports  of 
Hispaniola.  "  Worshipful  friends  in  London,"  it  appears, 
shared  his  venture  —  Sir  Lionel  Ducket,  Sir  Thomas  Lodge, 
and  the  like.  He  took  three  ships,  the  largest  only  120  tons; 
he  had  but  a  hundred  men  in  all.  In  Guinea,  Hakluyt  frank 
ly  tells  us  in  the  brief  note  which  gives  all  that  is  known  of 
this  expedition,  "  he  got  into  his  possession,  partly  by  the 
sword  and  partly  by  other  meanes,  to  the  number  of  three 
hundred  negroes  at  the  least,  besides  other  merchandises 
which  that  country  yeeldeth."  With  this  miserable  cargo  he 
sailed  for  Hispaniola,  and  in  three  ports  left  all  his  goods 
behind  him,  loaded  his  own  ship  with  hides,  ginger,  sugar,  and 
pearls,  and  had  enough  to  freight  two  other  ships  besides. 
This  is  almost  all  we  know  of  the  first  voyage  ;  but  the  sec 
ond,  in  1564,  was  fully  described  by  John  Sparke,  one  of  his 
companions  —  and  a  very  racy  record  it  is.  This  was  the  first 
English  narrative  of  American  adventure  ;  for  though  Cabot 
left  manuscripts  behind  him,  they  were  never  printed. 

When  we   consider  that  the   slave-trade  is  now  treated  as 


86 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


piracy  throughout  the  civilized  world,  it  is  curious  to  find  that 
these  courageous  early  navigators  were  not  only  slave-traders, 
but  of  a  most  pious  description.  When  Hawkins  tried  to 


SIR  JOHN    HAWKINS,   KT. 


capture  and  enslave  a  whole  town  near  Sierra  Leone,  and 
when  he  narrowly  escaped  being  captured  himself,  and  meet 
ing  the  fate  he  richly  deserved,  his  historian  says,  "  God,  who 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  87 

worketh  all  things  for  the  best,  would  not  have  it  so,  and  by 
Him  wee  escaped  without  danger;  His  name  be  praysed  for 
it.'1  When  the  little  fleet  is  becalmed,  and  suffers  for  want 
of  water,  the  author  says,  "  But  Almightie  God,  who  never 
suffereth  His  elect  to  perish,  sent  vs  the  sixteene  of  Februarie 
the  ordinarie  Brieze,  which  is  the  north-west  winde."  With 
these  religious  sentiments  Hawkins  carried  his  negroes  to  the 
Spanish  settlements  in  Venezuela  and  elsewhere.  The  news 
of  his  former  voyage  had  reached  Philip  of  Spain,  who  had 
expressly  prohibited  the  colonists  from  trading  with  Hawkins. 
But  they  wished  for  his  slaves,  and  he  had  the  skill  to  begin 
his  traffic  by  explaining  that  he  only  wished  to  sell  "  certaine 
lean  and  sicke  negroes,  which  he  had  in  his  shippe,  like  to 
die  upon  his  hands,"  but  which,  if  taken  on  shore,  might  yet 
recover.  It  was  thought  that  it  might  be  a  kindness  to  the 
poor  to  let  them  buy  lean  negroes  at  a  low  price,  and  so  the 
bargain  was  permitted.  If  a  town  gave  him  a  license  to  trade 
in  slaves,  and  charged  money  for  it,  he  put  the  prices  high 
enough  to  cover  the  charges.  If  the  prices  were  thought  too 
high,  and  the  town  authorities  objected,  he  would  go  on  shore 
with  a  hundred  men  in  armor,  and  "  hauing  in  his  great  boate 
two  falcons  of  brasse,  and  in  the  other  boates  double  bases  in 
their  noses ;"  and  with  these  cannon  would  so  frighten  the 
people  that  they  would  send  the  town  treasurer  to  negotiate. 
The  treasurer  would  perhaps  come  on  horseback,  with  a  jave 
lin,  but  would  be  so  afraid  of  the  captain  on  foot  with  his 
armor  that  he  would  keep  at  a  safe  distance,  and  do  the  bar 
gaining  at  the  top  of  his  voice. 

Hawkins  and  his  men  seem  to  have  feared  nothing  seri 
ously  except  the  alligators,  which  they  called  crocodiles,  and 
of  which  they  asserted  that  they  drew  people  to  them  by  their 
lamentations.  "  His  nature  is  euer,  when  he  would  haue  his 
praie,  to  crie  and  sobbe  like  a  Christian  bodie  to  prouoke 
them  to  come  to  him,  and  then  he  snatcheth  at  them ;  and 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


thereupon  came  this  prouerbe  that  is  applied  vnto  women 
when  they  weepe,  Lachrymce  Crocodili,  the  meaning  whereof 
is  that  as  the  crocodile  when  he  crieth  goeth  then  about 
most  to  deceive,  so  doth  a  woman  most  commonly  when  she 
weepeth."  Shakespeare,  who  was  about  this  time  writing  his 
play  of  "  King  Henry  VI.,"  apparently  borrowed  from  Sir  John 
Hawkins  this  story,  and  introduced  it  in  his  lines : 

"As  the  mournful  crocodile 
With  sorrow  snares  relenting  passengers." 

2  Henry   VI.,  iii.  i. 

Hawkins  and  his  men  visited  Cuba,  Hispaniola,  the  Tortu- 
gas,  and  other  places ;  supplied  food  to  Laudonniere's  French 
settlements  in  what  was  then  called  Florida,  and  ultimately 

sailed  along  the  coast  of  North 
America  to  Newfoundland,  and 
thence  to  Europe.  By  this  voy 
age  Hawkins  obtained  fame  and 
honor ;  he  became  Sir  John  Haw 
kins,  and  was  authorized  to  have 
on  his  crest  the  half-length  fig 
ure  of  a  negro  prisoner,  called 
technically  ua  demie-Moor  bound 
and  captive."  Later,  when  Queen 
Elizabeth  had  definitely  taken 
sides  against  Spain,  and  with 
drawn  all  obstacles  to  Hawkins's 
plans,  he  established  a  regular 
settlement,  or  "  factory,"  in  Guin- 

THE  HAWKINS  ARMS.  Qa  as  the  head -quarters  for  his 

slave  -  trade  ;    sailed    with    slaves 

once  more  for  a  third  voyage  across  the  Atlantic  (1568); 
traded  in  some  places  openly,  in  others  secretly  and  by  night, 
in  spite  of  King  Philip's  prohibition,  and  prospered  well  until 


THE  OLD   ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 


89 


DEFEAT   OF   THE    BRITISH    UNDER    .SIR   JOHN    HAWKINS   AT   SAN    JUAN    DE    ULLOA. 


he  met  in  the  port  of  San  Juan  de  Ulloa  a  Spanish  fleet 
stronger  than  his  own.  Hawkins  had  already  put  into  the 
port  with  disabled  ships,  when  he  saw  a  fleet  of  thirteen 
Spanish  treasure-ships  outside.  He  might,  perhaps,  have  kept 
them  from  entering,  or  have  captured  or  sunk  them,  had  he 
dared ;  but  he  let  them  in  with  a  solemn  compact  of  mutual 
forbearance,  was  then  treacherously  attacked  by  the  Spaniards, 
and  an  engagement  was  brought  on.  The  English  were  at 


90  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

first  successful,  but  the  Spaniards  used  fire-ships  against  them, 
and  Hawkins  was  utterly  defeated.  Some  of  his  vessels  were 
sunk ;  others  were  driven  to  sea  without  provisions. 

Hawkins  himself  thus  plaintively  describes  their  sorrows : 
"  With  manie  sorrowful!  hearts  wee  wandred  in  an  unknowen 
Sea  by  the  space  of  fourteene  dayes,  tyll  hunger  enforced  vs 
to  seeke  the  lande,  for  birdes  were  thought  very  good  meate, 
rattes,  cattes,  mise,  and  dogges,  none  escaped  that  might  be 
gotten,  parrotes  and  monkayes  that  were  had  in  great  prize 
were  thought  then  very  profitable  if  they  served  the  tourne 
[turn]  one  dinner."  A  poor  remnant  of  the  crews  reached 
England  at  last  in  a  condition  as  wretched  as  that  of  the 
negroes  they  had  kidnapped ;  and  Hawkins  thus  sums  up  their 
adventures:  "If  all  the  miseries  and  troublesome  affaires  of 
this  sorrowfull  voyage  should  be  perfectly  and  thoroughly 
written,  there  should  need  a  paynfull  [painstaking]  man  with 
his  penne,  and  as  great  a  time  as  hee  had  that  wrote  the  lives 
and  deathes  of  the  martirs."  Nothing  is  more  probable  than 
that  Hawkins  regarded  himself  as  entitled  to  a  place  upon 
the  catalogue  of  saints.  But  darkened  as  were  these  voyages 
by  wrong  and  by  disaster,  they  nevertheless  were,  the  begin 
ning  of  the  long  sea-fight  between  Spain  and  England  for  the 
possession  of  the  New  World. 

The  contest  was  followed  up  by  the  greatest  of  the  Eng 
lish  sailors,  Francis  Drake,  first  known  as  commanding  a  ves 
sel  under  Hawkins  in  the  ill-fated  expedition  just  described. 
From  the  time  of  that  disaster  Drake  took  up  almost  as  a 
profession  the  work  of  plundering  the  Spaniards ;  and  he 
might  well  be  called  a  buccaneer,  had  he  not  concentrated 
his  piracy  on  one  particular  nation.  He  was  the  son  of  a 
Protestant  chaplain  who  had  suffered  for  his  opinions ;  and 
though  the  policy  of  Elizabeth  was  long  uncertain,  the  public 
sentiment  of  England  was  with  the  United  Netherlands  in 
their  desperate  war  against  Philip  II.  The  English  seamen 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  gi 

had  found  out  that  the  way  to  reach  Spain  was  through  her 
rich  possessions  in  West  India  and  South  America,  or  by 
plundering  the  treasure -ships  to  which  she  could  afford  but 
meagre  escort.  Drake  made  one  trip  after  another  to  the 


SIR    FRANCIS   DRAKE. 


American  coast,  and  on  February  n,  1573,  he  looked  for  the 
first  time  on  the  Pacific  from  the  top  of  a  tree  in  Panama. 
He  resolved  to  become  the  pioneer  of  England  on  that 
ocean,  where  the  English  flag  had  never  yet  floated,  and  he 
asked  the  blessing  of  God  on  this  enterprise.  In  November, 


92  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

1577,  he  embarked  for  the  fulfilment  of  this  purpose,  being 
resolved  to  take  Peru  itself  from  the  Spaniards.  His  enter 
prise  was  known  at  the  time  as  "  the  famous  voyage,"  and 
ended  in  the  first  English  circumnavigation  of  the  globe. 

Such  novels  as  Kingsley's  "  Westward  Ho !  or,  Sir  Amyas 
Leigh "  give  a  picture,  hardly  exaggerated,  of  the  exciting 
achievements  of  these  early  seamen.  Drake  sailed  from  Plym 
outh,  November  15,  1577,  with  one  hundred  and  sixty -four 
sailors  and  adventurers  in  a  fleet  of  five  ships  and  barks,  and 
after  making  some  captures  of  Spanish  vessels  about  the  Cape 
de  Verd  Islands,  he  steered  for  the  open  sea.  He  was  fifty- 
four  days  out  of  sight  of  land — time  enough  to  have  made  six 
ocean  voyages  in  a  Liverpool  steamer  —  before  he  came  in 
sight  of  the  Brazils.  There  he  cruised  awhile  and  victualled 
his  ships  with  seals,  which  are  not  now  considered  good  eating. 
Following  down  the  coast  in  the  track  of  Magellan,  he  reached 
at  last  the  strait  which  bears  the  name  of  this  Portuguese  ex 
plorer,  but  which  no  Englishman  had  yet  traversed.  Drake's 
object  was  to  come  by  this  unexpected  ocean  route  to  Peru, 
and  there  ravage  the  Spanish  settlements. 

Reaching  the  coast  of  Chili,  he  heard  from  an  Indian  in  a 
canoe  that  there  was  a  great  Spanish  ship  at  Santiago  laden 
with  treasure  from  Peru.  Approaching  the  port,  the  English 
men  found  the  ship  riding  at  anchor,  having  on  board  but  six 
Spaniards  and  three  negroes.  These  poor  fellows,  never  dream 
ing  that  any  but  their  own  countrymen  could  have  found  their 
way  there,  welcomed  the  visitors,  beating  a  drum  in  their 
honor,  and  setting  forth  a  jar  of  Chilian  wine  for  their  enter 
tainment.  But  as  soon  as  the  strangers  entered,  one  of  them, 
named  Thomas  Moon,  began  to  lay  about  him  with  his  sword 
in  a  most  uncivil  manner,  striking  one  Spaniard,  and  shouting, 
"  Go  down,  dog  !"  (Abaxo,  perro  /)  All  the  Spaniards  and  ne 
groes  were  at  once  driven  below,  except  one,  who  jumped  over 
board  and  alarmed  the  town.  The  people  of  Santiago  fled 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 


93 


to  the  woods,  and  the  Englishmen  landed  and  robbed  the  town, 
including  a  little  chapel,  from  which  they  took  "  a  silver  chal 
ice,  two  cruets,  and  one  altar-cloth,  the  spoyle  whereof  our 
Generall  gave  to  M.  Fletcher,  his  minister."  On  board  the 
captured  ship  they  found  abundance  of  wine  and  treasure, 
amounting  to  37,000  ducats  of  Spanish  money — a  ducat  being 
worth  five  and  a  half  shillings  English. 

They  sailed  away,  leaving  their  prisoners  on  shore.  Land 
ing  at  Tarapaca,  they  found  a  Spaniard  lying  asleep,  with  thir 
teen  bars  of  silver  beside  him,  these  being  worth  4000  ducats. 


"THOMAS   MOON    BEGAN    TO    LAV    ABOU 


LM    VV  1 1  H    HIS    SWORD. 


94  HISTORY  OF  THE   UNITED   STATES. 

"  We  tooke  the  siluer,"  says  the  narrator,  briefly,  "  and  left  the 
man."  Landing  for  water  at  another  place,  they  met  a  Span 
iard  and  an  Indian  boy  driving  eight  "Llamas  or  sheepe  of 
Peru,  which  are  as  bigge  as  asses ;"  each  of  these  having  two 
bags  of  leather  on  his  back,  each  bag  holding  fifty  pounds  of 
fine  silver — 800  pounds  weight  in  all.  Soon  after  they  capt 
ured  three  small  barks,  one  of  them  laden  with  silver,  and  an 
other  with  a  quantity  of  linen  cloth.  At  Lima  they  found 
twelve  ships  at  anchor,  robbed  them,  and  cut  their  cables ;  and 
afterwards  they  came  up  with  a  bark  yielding  eighty  pounds 
of  gold  and  a  crucifix  of  gold  and  emeralds.  Everywhere  they 
took  people  wholly  by  surprise,  such  a  thing  as  an  English 
ship  being  a  sight  wholly  new  on  the  Pacific  Ocean,  altogether 
unexpected,  and  particularly  unwelcome. 

Everywhere  they  heard  of  a  great  Spanish  treasure-ship, 
the  Cacafuego,  which  had  sailed  before  their  arrival ;  they  fol 
lowed  her  to  Payta  and  to  Panama,  and  the  "  General "  prom 
ised  his  chain  of  gold  to  any  lookout  who  should  spy  her. 
Coming  up  with  her  at  last,  they  fired  three  shots,  striking 
down  her  mizzen-mast,  and  then  captured  her  without  resist 
ance.  They  found  in  her  "great  riches,  as  iewels  and  precious 
stones,  thirteene  chests  full  of  royals  [reals]  of  plate,  fourscore 
pounds  weight  of  golde  and  sixe  and  twentie  tunne  of  siluer." 
To  show  how  thoroughly  Drake  did  his  work,  piratical  as  it 
was,  the  narrator  of  the  voyage  says  that  there  were  found 
on  board  two  silver  cups,  which  were  the  pilot's,  to  whom  the 
General  said,  "  Senior  [Senor]  Pilot,  you  haue  here  two  siluer 
cups ;  but  I  must  needes  haue  one  of  them ;"  and  the  pilot 
gave  him  one  "  because  hee  could  not  otherwise  chuse,"  and 
gave  the  other  to  the  ship's  steward,  perhaps  for  as  good  a 
reason.  Thus  went  the  voyage ;  now  rifling  a  town,  now  plun 
dering  a  captive,  now  capturing  a  vessel  and  taking  "  a  fawl- 
con  [breastplate]  of  golde  with  a  great  emeraud  in  the  breast 
thereof,"  from  the  owner  in  person.  Never  once  did  they  en- 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 


95 


counter  an  armed  opponent,  or  engage  in  a  fair  fight ;  on  the 
other  hand,  they  were  never  guilty,  as  the  Spaniards  often 
were,  of  wanton  cruelty,  judging  both  sides  by  the  testimony 
of  their  own  witnesses.  It  was  an  ignoble  warfare  in  one 
sense ;  but  when  we  consider  that  these  Englishmen  were  in 
an  unknown  sea,  with  none  but  unwilling  pilots,  and  that  there 
was  not  a  man  along  the  shore  who  was  not  their  enemy, 
there  was  surely  an  element  of  daring  in  the  whole  affair. 

They  repaired  their  ships  at  the  island  of  Sanno ;  and  there 
the  attacks  upon  the  Spaniards  ended.  The  narrator  thus 
sums  up  the  situation :  "  Our  General  at  this  place  and  time, 
thinking  himselfe  both  in  respect  of  his  priuate  iniuries  re 
ceived  from  the  Spaniards,  as  also  of  their  contempts  and  in- 


PART    OF    MAP    OF    DRAKE'S    VOYAGES,    PUBLISHED    BY   J.   HONDIUS    IN    HOLLAND 
TOWARDS   THE   CLOSE  OF   THE   SIXTEENTH   CENTURY. 


96  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

dignities  offered  to  our  countrey  and  Prince  in  generall,  suffi 
ciently  satisfied  and  reuenged,  and  supposing  that  her  Maiestie 
at  his  returne  would  rest  contented  with  this  seruice,  purposed 
to  continue  no  longer  upon  the  Spanish  coastes,  but  began  to 
consider  and  to  consult  of  the  best  way  for  his  countrey." 

He  resolved  at  last  to  avoid  the  Strait  of  Magellan,  which 
he  had  found  dangerous,  and  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  where  he 
was  too  well  known,  and  to  go  northward  along  the  coast, 
and  sail  across  the  Pacific  as  he  had  already  crossed  the  At 
lantic.  He  sailed  as  far  north  as  California,  which  he  called 
New  Albion  ;  he  entered  "  a  faire  and  good  bay,"  which  may 
have  been  that  of  San  Francisco ;  he  took  possession  of  the 
country  in  the  name  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  setting  up  a  post 
with  that  announcement.  He  then  supposed,  but  erroneously, 
that  the  Spaniards  had  never  visited  that  region, 'and  his  re 
corder  says  of  it :  "  There  is  no  part  of  earth  here  to  bee  taken 
up  wherein  there  is  not  some  speciall  likelihood  of  gold  and 
silver."  Then  he  sailed  across  the  Pacific,  this  passage  last 
ing  from  midsummer  until  October  18  (1579),  when  he  and 
his  men  came  among  the  islands  off  the  coast  of  Africa,  and 
so  rounded  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  and  reached  England  at 
last,  after  three  years'  absence.  They  \vere  the  first  English 
men  to  sail  round  the  world,  and  the  first  of  their  country 
men  to  visit  those  islands  of  "  the  gorgeous  East "  which  Port 
ugal  had  first  reached,  and  Spain  had  now  wrested  from 
Portugal. 

The  feats  of  Hawkins  and  Drake,  clouded  as  they  were 
by  the  slave-trade  in  one  case,  and  by  what  seemed  much  like 
piracy  in  the  other,  produced  a  great  stir  in  England.  "  The 
nakednesse  of  the  Spaniards  and  their  long-hidden  secrets  are 
now  at  length  espied."  Thus  wrote  Hakluyt  three  years  after 
Drake's  return,  and  urged  "  the  deducting  of  some  colonies  of 
our  superfluous  people  into  those  temperate  and  fertile  partes 
of  America  w-hich,  being  within  six  weekes  sailing  of  England, 


THE  OLD   ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  97 

are  yet  unpossessed  by  any  Christians,  and  seeme  to  offer 
themselves  unto  us,  and  stretching  nearer  unto  her  Majesty's 
dominions  than  to  any  other  part  of  Europe."  The  forgotten 
explorations  of  Cabot  were  now  remembered.  Here  was  a 
vast  country  to  which  Spain  and  France  had  laid  claim,  but 
which  neither  had  colonized.  The  fishermen  of  four  or  five 
nations  were  constantly  resorting  thither,  but  it  belonged,  by 
right  of  prior  discovery,  to  England  alone.  Why  should  not 
England  occupy  it  ?  "  It  seems  probable,"  wrote  the  historian 
of  Sir  Humphrey  Gilbert  in  1583,  "by  event  of  precedent  at 
tempts  made  by  the  Spanyards  and  French  sundry  times " 
(i.  e.,  by  their  uniform  failure)  "  that  the  countries  lying  north 
of  Florida  God  hath  reserued  the  same  to  be  reduced  unto 
Christian  civility  by  the  English  nation.  For  not  long  after 
that  Christopher  Columbus  had  discouered  the  islands  and 
continents  of  the  West  Indies  for  Spayne,  John  and  Sebas 
tian  Cabot  made  discovery  also  of  the  West  from  Florida 
northwards  to  the  behoofe  of  England."  Frobisher  had  al 
ready  attempted  the  North-west  passage;  Sir  Humphrey  Gil 
bert,  the  first  English  colonizer,  took  possession  of  Newfound 
land  in  the  name  of  the  Queen,  and  tried  in  vain  to  settle  a 
colony  there ;  and  he  died  at  sea  at  last,  as  described  in  Long 
fellow's  ballad : 

"Beside  the  helm  he  sat, 

The  Book  was  in  his  hand, 
'  Do  not  fear ;    Heaven  is  as  near,' 

He  said,  'by  water  as  by  land.'" 

He  had  obtained  a  commission  from  the  Queen  "  to  inhabit 
and  possess  at  his  choice  all  remote  and  heathen  lands  not 
in  the  actual  possession  of  any  Christian  prince."  He  himself 
obtained  for  his  body  but  the  unquiet  possession  of  a  grave 
in  the  deep  sea ;  but  his  attempt  was  one  event  more  in  the 
great  series  of  English  enterprises.  After  him  his  half-brother 
Raleigh  sent  Amidas  and  Barlow  (1584)  to  explore  what  was 

7 


98  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

then  first  called  Virginia  in  honor  of  the  Queen ;  and  the  year 
after,  Raleigh  sent  an  ineffectual  colony  to  establish  itself  within 
what  is  now  North  Carolina.  Then  the  tumults  of  war  arose 
again ;  and  Sir  Francis  Drake  was  summoned  to  lead  a  great 
naval  expedition,  a  real  "  armada,"  to  the  attack  on  Spanish 
America. 

He  sailed  from  Plymouth,  England,  September  17,  1585, 
with  twenty- five  vessels  carrying  2300  men,  and  he  had  un 
der  him,  as  Vice  -  admiral,  Captain  Martin  Frobisher,  famous 
by  his  endeavor  after  the  North-west  passage.  I  must  pass 
lightly  over  the  details  of  Drake's  enterprise.  It  was  full  of 
daring,  though  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  Spanish  forts 
in  the  West  Indies  were  weak,  their  ordnance  poor,  and  their 
garrisons  small.  At  the  city  of  San  Domingo,  which  is  de 
scribed  as  "  the  antientest  and  chief  inhabited  place  in  all  the 
tract  of  country  hereabout,"  Drake  landed  a  thousand  or  twelve 
hundred  men.  A  hundred  cavalrymen  hovered  near  them,  but 
quickly  retreated ;  the  thousand  Englishmen  divided  in  two 
portions,  assaulted  the  two  city  gates,  carried  them  easily,  and 
then  reunited  in  the  market-place.  Towards  midnight  they 
tried  the  gates  of  the  castle ;  it  was  at  once  abandoned,  and 
by  degrees,  street  by  street,  the  invaders  got  possession  of  half 
the  town.  The  Spanish  commissioners  held  the  other  half, 
and  there  were  constant  negotiations  for  ransom;  "but  upon 
disagreement,"  says  the  English  narrator,  "  we  still  spent  the 
early  mornings  in  firing  the  outmost  houses ;  but  they  being 
built  very  magnificently  of  stone,  with  high  lofts,  gave  us  no 
small  travail  to  ruin  them."  They  kept  two  hundred  sailors 
busy  at  this  work  of  firing  houses,  while  as  many  soldiers 
stood  guard  over  them ;  and  yet  had  not  destroyed  more  than 
a  third  part  of  the  town  when  they  consented  to  accept  25,000 
ducats  for  the  ransom  of  the  rest. 

It  is  hard  to  distinguish  this  from  the  career  of  a  bucca 
neer  ;  but,  after  all,  Drake  was  a  mild  -  mannered  gentleman, 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH   SEAMEN. 


99 


DRAKE'S   ATTACK   ON    SAN    DOMINGO. 


and  kept  a  chaplain.  There  are,  to  be  sure,  in  the  anonymous 
"short  abstract"  of  this  voyage  "in  the  handwriting  of  the 
time,"  published  by  the  Hakluyt  Society,  some  ugly  hints  as 


100  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

to  the  private  morals  of  the  officers  of  Drake's  ship,  including 
the  captain  himself.  And  there  is  something  very  grotesque 
in  the  final  fall  from  grace  of  the  chaplain,  Francis  Fletcher, 
himself,  as  described  in  a  memorandum  among  the  Harleian 
MSS.  This  is  the  same  chaplain  who  had  the  chalice  and 
the  altar-cloth  as  his  share  of  the  plunder  of  a  church  at 
Santiago.  Drake  afterwards  found  him  guilty  of  mutiny,  and 
apparently  felt  himself  free  to  pronounce  both  temporal  and 
spiritual  penalties,  as  given  in  the  following  narrative  by  an 
eye-witness  : 

"  Drake  excommunicated  Fletcher  shortly  after.  .  .  .  He  called  all  the 
company  together,  and  then  put  a  lock  about  one  of  his  legs,  and  Drake  syt- 
ting  cros  legged  on  a  chest,  and  a  paire  of  pantoffles  [slippers]  in  his  hand, 
he  said,  Francis  Fletcher,  I  doo  heere  excomunicate  the  out  of  ye  Church  of 
God,  and  from  all  benefites  and  graces  thereof,  and  I  denounce  the  to  the 
divell  and  all  his  angells  ;  and  then  he  charged  him  vppon  payne  of  death  not 
once  to  come  before  the  mast,  for  if  hee  did,  he  swore  he  should  be  hanged ; 
and  Drake  cawsed  a  posy  [inscription]  to  be  written  and  bond  about  Fletcher's 
arme,  with  charclge  that  if  hee  took  it  of  hee  should  then  be  hanged.  The 
poes  [posy  or  inscription]  was,  Francis  fletcher,  y2  falsest  knave  that  liveth." 

Carthagena  was  next  attacked  by  Drake,  and  far  more 
stoutly  defended,  the  inhabitants  having  had  twenty  days' 
notice  because  of  the  attack  on  San  Domingo.  Carthagena 
was  smaller,  but  for  various  reasons  more  important ;  there 
had  been  preparations  for  attack,  the  women  and  children  had 
been  sent  away,  with  much  valuable  property ;  a  few  old- 
fashioned  cannon  had  been  brought  together;  there  were  bar 
ricades  made  of  earth  and  water-pipes  across  the  principal 
streets;  there  were  pointed  sticks  tipped  with  Indian  poisons, 
and  stuck  in  the  ground,  points  upward.  There  were  also 
Indian  allies  armed  with  bows  and  poisoned  arrows.  Against 
all  these  obstacles  the  Englishmen  charged  pell-mell  with  pikes 
and  swords,  relying  little  upon  fire-arms.  They  had  longer 
pikes  than  the  Spaniards,  and  more  of  the  Englishmen  were 
armed.  "  Every  man  came  so  willingly  on  to  the  service,  as 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  IOI 

the  enemy  was  not  able  to  endure  the  fury  of  such  hot  as 
sault."  It  ended  in  the  ransoming  of  the  town  for  1 10,000 
ducats,  or  about  ,£30,000.  It  seems,  by  the  report  of  the  coun 
cil  of  captains,  that  ,£100,000  had  been  the  original  demand, 
but  these  officers  say  that  they  can  "  with  much  honor  and 
reputation,"  accept  the  smaller  sum  after  all,  "  inasmuch,"  they 
add,  "as  we  have  taken  our  full  pleasure,  both  in  the  utter 
most  sacking  and  spoiling  of  all  their  household  goods  and 
merchandise,  as  also  in  that  we  have  consumed  and  ruined  a 
great  part  of  the  town  by  fire."  After  all,  the  Englishmen 
insisted  that  this  ransom  did  not  include  the  abbey  and  the 
block -house  or  castle,  and  they  forced  the  Spaniards  to  give 
"  a  thousand  crowns  "  more  for  the  abbey,  and  because  there 
was  no  money  left  with  which  to  redeem  the  castle,  it  was 
blown  up  by  the  English.  Drake  afterwards  took  St.  Augus 
tine,  already  settled  by  the  Spaniards,  and  after  sailing  north 
ward,  and  taking  on  board  the  survivors  of  Raleigh's  unsuc- 

o  o 

cessful  colony  in  what  is  now  North  Carolina,  he  sailed  for 
England. 

What  a  lawless  and  even  barbarous  life  was  this  which 
Drake  led  upon  the  American  coast  and  among  the  Spanish 
settlements !  Yet  he  was  not  held  to  have  dishonored  his 
nation,  but  the  contrary.  His  Queen  rewarded  him,  poets 
sang  of  him,  and  Sir  Philip  Sidney,  the  mirror  of  all  chivalry 
at  that  day,  would  have  joined  one  of  his  expeditions  had  not 
his  royal  mistress  kept  him  at  home.  The  Spaniards  would 
have  done  no  better,  to  be  sure,  and  would  have  brought  to 
bear  all  the  horrors  of  the  Inquisition  besides.  Yet  the  Eng 
lish  were  apt  pupils  in  all  the  atrocities  of  personal  torture. 
Cavendish,  who  afterwards  sailed  in  the  track  of  Drake,  cir 
cumnavigating  the  globe  like  him,  took  a  small  bark  on  the 
coast  of  Chili,  which  vessel  had  on  board  three  Spaniards  and 
a  Fleming.  These  men  were  bound  to  Lima  with  letters  warn 
ing  the  inhabitants  of  the  approach  of  the  English,  and  they 


OF    T«JC 

UNIVERSITY 


102 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 


had  sworn  before  their  priests  that  in  case  of  danger  the  let 
ters  should  be  thrown  overboard.  "  Yet  our  General,"  says 

the  narrator,  "  wrought  so 
with  them  that  they  did 
confess  it ;  but  he  was  fain 
to  cause  them  to  be  tor 
mented  with  their  thumbs 
in  a  wrench,  and  to  con 
tinue  three  several  times 
with  extreme  pain.  Also  he 
made  the  old  Fleming  be 
lieve  that  he  would  hang 
him,  and  the  rope  being 
about  his  neck,  he  was 
pulled  up  a  little  from  the 
hatches,  and  yet  he  would 
not  confess,  choosing  rather 
to  die  than  to  be  perjured. 
In  the  end  it  was  confessed 

by  one  of  the  Spaniards."  Who  can  help  feeling  more  respect 
for  the  fidelity  of  this  old  man,  who  would  die  but  not  break 
his  oath,  than  for  the  men  who  tortured  him  ? 

Yet  it  is  just  to  say  that  the  expeditions  of  Cavendish,  like 
the  later  enterprises  of  Drake,  were  a  school  for  personal 
courage,  and  were  not  aimed  merely  against  the  defenceless. 
Cavendish  gave  battle  off  California  to  the  great  Spanish  flag 
ship  of  the  Pacific,  the  Santa  Anna,  of  700  tons  burden, 
bound  home  from  the  Philippine  Islands.  They  fought  for 
five  or  six  hours  with  heavy  ordnance  and  with  small -arms, 
and  the  Spaniards  at  last  surrendered.  There  were  on  board 
122,000  pesos  of  gold,  besides  silks  and  satins  and  other  mer 
chandise,  with  provisions  and  wines.  These  Cavendish  seized, 
put  the  crew  and  passengers  —  nearly  200  in  all  —  on  shore, 
with  tents,  provisions,  and  planks,  and  burned  the  Santa  Anna 


THOMAS   CAVENDISH. 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN. 


'03 


to  the  water's  edge.  Then  he  sailed  for  England  with  his 
treasures,  across  the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  thus  became  the  sec 
ond  English  circumnavigator  of  the  globe.  This  sort  of  pri 
vateering  was  an  advance  on  the  slave -trading  of  Hawkins 


CAPTURE  OF  THE   "SANTA  ANNA,"  SPANISH    FLAG-SHIP,  BY  CAVENDISH. 


104  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

and  on  Drake's  early  assaults  upon  almost  defenceless  towns ; 
but  it  was  often  very  remote  from  all  honorable  warfare.  Yet 
it  was  by  such  means  that  the  power  of  Spain  was  broken, 
and  that  the  name  of  England  and  England's  queen  became 
mighty  upon  the  seas. 

As  the  sixteenth  century  began  with  the  fame  of  the  Cab- 
ots,  so  it  ended  with  the  dreams  of  Raleigh.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that  none  of  these  great  buccaneers  had  done  any 
thing  with  a  view  to  colonizing,  nor  would  it  have  been  pos 
sible,  by  armed  force,  to  have  held  the  conquered  Spanish 
towns.  Had  England  only  been  strong  enough  for  this,  South 
America  as  well  as  North  America  might  have  spoken  the 
English  tongue  to-day.  But  it  was  the  British  naval  strength 
only  that  was  established,  and  after  the  dispersal  of  the  great 
Spanish  Armada  sent  by  Philip  II.  against  England  in  1588, 
the  power  of  Spain  upon  the  water  was  forever  broken.  This 
opened  the  way  for  England  to  colonize  unmolested  the 
northern  half  of  the  New  World ;  and  the  great  promoter  of 
this  work,  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  was  the  connecting  link  be 
tween  two  generations  of  Englishmen.  He  was  at  once  the 
last  of  the  buccaneers  and  the  first  of  the  colonizers. 

He  himself  had  made  a  voyage,  led  by  as  wild  a  dream 
as  any  which,  in  that  age  of  dreams,  bewildered  an  explorer. 
We  must  remember  that,  though  the  terrors  of  the  ocean 
were  partly  dispelled,  their  mysteries  still  held  their  sway  over 
men.  Job  Hartop,  in  the  region  of  the  Bermudas,  describes 
a  merman :  "  We  discovered  a  monster  in  the  sea,  who  showed 
himself  three  times  unto  us  from  the  middle  upward,  in  which 
part  he  was  proportioned  like  a  man,  of  the  complexion  of  a 
mulatto  or  tawny  Indian."  But  especially  the  accounts  were 
multiplied  of  cities  or  islands  which  now  appeared,  now  dis 
appeared,  and  must  be  patiently  sought  out.  Sir  John  Haw 
kins  reported  "  certain  flitting  islands "  about  the  Canaries 
"  which  have  been  oftentimes  seene,  and  when  men  approached 


THE  OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  105 

them  neere,  they  vanished  .  .  .  and  therefore  it  should  seeme 
he  is  not  yet  born  to  whom  God  hath  appointed  the  finding 
of  them."  Henry  Hawkes,  speaking  of  that  standing  mystery, 
the  Seven  Cities  of  Mexico,  says  that  the  Spaniards  believed 
the  Indians  to  cast  a  mist  over  these  cities,  through  witchcraft, 


SIR   WALTER   RALEIGH. 

so  that  none  could  find  them.  Is  it  strange  that  under  these 
influences  Sir  Walter  Raleigh  went  in  search  of  the  fabled 
empire  of  Guiana  ? 

Guiana  was  supposed  in  those  days  to  be  a  third  great 
American  treasure-house,  surpassing  those  of  Peru  and  Mex 
ico.  Its  capital  was  named  El  Dorado — "  the  gilded."  Span 
ish  adventurers  claimed  to  have  seen  it  from  afar,  and  de 
scribed  its  houses  as  roofed  with  gold  and  silver,  and  its  tern- 


106  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

pies  as  filled  with  statues  of  pure  gold.  Milton  links  it  with 
Peru  and  Mexico : 

"  Rich  Mexico,  the  seat  of  Montezuma, 
And  Cuzco,  in  Peru,  the  richer  seat 
Of  Atabalipa,  and  yet  unspoiled 
Guiana,  whose  great  city  Geryon's  sons 
Call  El  Dorado." 

Raleigh  himself  went  in  search  of  this  El  Dorado,  sailing  up 
the  Orinoco  to  find  the  kingdom,  which  was  said  to  lie  upon 
an  island  in  a  salt  -  water  lake,  like  the  Caspian  Sea.  He 
brought  home  report  of  many  wonders,  including  a  race  called 
Ewaiponima,  of  whom  he  says  that  they  have  eyes  in  their 
shoulders,  and  mouths  in  the  middle  of  their  breasts,  with  a 
long  train  of  hair  growing  backward  between  their  shoulders. 
He  admits  that  he  never  saw  them,  but  says  that  every  child 
in  the  provinces  he  visited  affirmed  of  their  existence.  It  was 
of  these  imaginary  beings  that  Shakespeare  describes  Othello 
as  discoursing: 

"  The  cannibals  that  each  other  eat, 
The  anthropophagi,  and  men  whose  heads 
Do  grow  beneath  their  shoulders." 

Raleigh  also  reports  a  description  he  had  heard  of  the  inhabi 
tants  of  this  wondrous  empire,  sitting  with  the  Emperor  at 
their  carousals,  their  bodies  stripped  naked,  and  covered  with 
a  white  balsam,  on  which  powdered  gold  was  blown  by  serv 
ants  through  hollow  canes  "  until  they  be  all  shining  from 
the  foot  to  the  head,  and  in  this  sort  they  sit  drinking  by 
twenties  and  hundreds,  and  continue  in  drunkenness  some 
times  six  or  seven  days  together." 

Raleigh  brought  home  few  trophies ;  but  his  descriptions  of 
nature  were  so  beautiful,  and  his  treatment  of  the  natives  so 
generous  that,  in  spite  of  his  having  a  touch  of  the  buccaneer 
quality  about  him,  we  can  well  accept  the  phrase  that  in  him 


THE   OLD  ENGLISH  SEAMEN.  IQJ 

"  chivalry  left  the  land,  and  launched  upon  the  deep."  But 
that  which  makes  his  memory  dear  to  later  generations  is  that 
he,  beyond  any  man  of  his  time,  saw  the  vast  field  open  for 
American  colonization,  and  persistently  urged  upon  Queen 
Elizabeth  to  undertake  it.  "  Whatsoever  prince  shall  possesse 
it,"  he  wrote  of  his  fabled  Guiana,  "  shall  be  greatest ;  and  if 
the  King  of  Spayne  enjojj  it,  he  will  become  unresistable." 
Then  he  closes  with  this  high  strain  of  appeal,  which  might 
well  come  with  irresistible  force  from  the  courtier-warrior  who 
had  taught  the  American  Indians  to  call  his  queen  "  Ezrabeta 
Cassipuna  Aquerewana,"  which  means,  he  says,  "  Elizabeth,  the 
great  princess,  or  greatest  commander :" 

"  To  speake  more  at  this  time  I  feare  would  be  but  troublesome.  I  trust 
in  God,  this  being  true,  will  suffice,  and  that  He  which  is  King  of  al  Kings  and 
Lorde  of  Lords  will  put  it  into  thy  heart  which  is  Lady  of  Ladies  to  possesse 
it.  If  not,  I  will  judge  those  men  worthy  to  be  kings  thereof,  that  by  her 
grace  and  leaue  will  undertake  it  of  themselues." 


V. 

THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS. 

WHEN  Spain  and  Portugal  undertook,  in  1494,  to  divide 
the  unexplored  portions  of  the  globe  between  them, 
under  the  Pope's  two  edicts  of  the  previous  year,  that  imper 
tinent  proposal  was  received  by  England  and  France  in  very 
characteristic  ways.  England  met  it  with  blunt  contempt,  and 
France  with  an  epigram.  "  The  King  of  France  sent  word 
to  our  great  Emperor,"  says  Bernal  Diaz,  describing  the  capt 
ure  of  some  Spanish  treasure  ships  by  a  French  pirate,  "  that 
as  he  and  the  King  of  Portugal  had  divided  the  earth  between 
themselves,  without  giving  him  a  share  of  it,  he  should  like 
them  to  show  him  our  father  Adam's  will,  in  order  to  know 
if  he  had  made  them  his  sole  heirs."  (Que  mostrassen  el  tes- 
tamento  de  nuestro  padre  A  dan,  si  les  dexb  a  ellos  solamente  por 
kerederos.}  In  the  meanwhile  he  warned  them  that  he  should 
feel  quite  free  to  take  all  he  could,  upon  the  ocean. 

France  was  not  long  content  with  laying  claim  to  the  sea, 
but  wished  to  have  the  land  also.  The  name  of  "  New 
France "  may  still  be  seen  on  early  maps  and  globes,  some 
times  covering  all  that  part  of  the  Atlantic  coast  north  of 
Florida,  and  sometimes  —  as  in  the  map  of  Ortelius,  made  in 
1574 — the  whole  of  North  and  South  America.  All  this  claim 
was  based  upon  the  explorations,  first  of  Verrazzano  (1524), 
and  then  of  Cartier  (1534-6).  The  first  of  these  two  voy 
agers  sailed  along  the  coast ;  the  second  penetrated  into  the 
interior,  and  the  great  river  St.  Lawrence  was  earliest  known  to 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  109 

Europeans  through  the  graphic  narrative  of  its  original  French 
explorer.  Perhaps  no  two  expeditions  since  Columbus  have 
added  more  to  the  geographical  knowledge  of  the  world — or 
would  have  added  it  but  for  the  doubt  that  still  rests  in  some 
minds  over  the  authenticity  of  Verrazzano's  narrative.  To 
such  extremes  has  this  doubt  been  carried  that  Mr.  Bancroft, 
in  the  revised  edition  of  his  history,  does  not  so  much  as  men 
tion  the  name  of  Verrazzano,  though  the  general  opinion  of 
authorities  now  accepts  his  narrative  as  genuine. 

Like  many  Italian  navigators  of  that  age,  he  served  other 
nations  than  his  own,  and  sailed  by  order  of  Francis  I.,  whose 
attention  had  just  been  called  from  royal  festivals  and  com 
bats  of  lions  to  take  part  in  the  exploration  of  the  world.  For 
this  purpose  he  sent  out  Verrazzano  with  four  ships  "  to  dis 
cover  new  lands "  (a  discoprir  nuove  terre),  and  it  was  to  de 
scribe  these  same  regions  that  a  letter  was  written  by  the 
explorer  from  Dieppe  to  the  king,  July  8,  1524.  This  letter 
was  published  by  Ramusio  about  forty  years  later,  and  an 
English  translation  of  it  appeared  in  Hakluyt's  famous  col 
lection.  A  manuscript  copy  of  the  letter  was  discovered  by 
Professor  George  W.  Greene  at  Florence  about  1840,  and  the 
letter  itself  was  reprinted  from  this  copy  by  the  New  York 
Historical  Society.  If  authentic,  it  is  the  earliest  original  ac 
count  of  the  Atlantic  coast  of  the  United  States.  Verrazzano 
saw  land  first  at  what  is  now  North  Carolina — "  a  newe  land 
never  before  seen  by  any  man,  either  auncient  or  moderne  " — 
and  afterwards  sailed  northward,  putting  in  at  many  harbors. 
The  natives  everywhere  received  him  kindly  at  first,  and  saved 
the  life  of  a  young  sailor  who  was  sent  ashore  with  presents 
for  them,  and  became  exhausted  with  swimming.  In  return, 
the  Frenchmen  carried  off  a  child,  and  attempted  to  carry  off 
a  young  girl,  tall  and  very  beautiful  (di  molta  bellezza  e  d1  alta 
staturd],  whom  they  found  hidden  with  an  older  woman  near 
the  shore,  and  whom  they  vainly  tried  to  tempt  by  presents. 


1 10  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED  STATES. 

Everything  which  they  offered  was  thrown  down  by  the  In 
dian  girl  in  great  anger  (e  con  ira  a  terra  gittava),  and  when 
they  attempted  to  seize  her,  she  shrieked  so  loudly  that  they 
let  her  alone.  After  such  a  transaction,  we  can  understand 
why  Verrazzano,  in  the  latter  part  of  his  voyage,  found  it  im 
possible  to  command  the  confidence  of  the  natives,  so  that  on 
the  northern  coast  of  New  England  the  Indians  would  not 
suffer  him  to  land,  but  would  only  let  down  their  furs  and 
provisions  into  the  boats  from  the  rocks,  insisting  on  instant 
payment,  and  making  signs  of  disdain  and  contempt  (dispregio 
e  verecondia).  In  accordance  with  the  usual  logic  of  advent 
urers  at  that  day,  Verrazzano  made  up  his  mind  that  these 
poor  creatures  had  no  sense  of  religion. 

This  early  explorer's  observations  on  the  natives  have  lit 
tle  value ;  but  his  descriptions  of  the  coast,  especially  of  the 
harbors  of  New  York  and  Newport,  have  peculiar  interest,  and 
his  charts,  although  not  now  preserved,  had  much  influence 
upon  contemporary  geography.  He  sailed  northward  as  far  as 
Newfoundland,  having  explored  the  coast  from  34°  to  50°  of 
north  latitude,  and  left  on  record  the  earliest  description  of 
the  whole  region.  As  to  the  ultimate  fate  of  Verrazzano  re 
ports  differ,  some  asserting  that  he  was  killed  and  eaten  by 
savages,  and  others  that  he  was  hanged  by  the  Spaniards  as 
a  pirate.  Somewhat  the  same  shadowy  uncertainty  still  at 
taches  to  his  reputation. 

A  greater  than  Verrazzano  followed  him,  aroused  and  stim 
ulated  by  what  he  had  done.  The  first  explorer  of  the  St. 
Lawrence  was  Jacques  Cartier,  who  had  sailed  for  years  on 
fishing  voyages  from  St.  Malo,  which  was  and  is  the  nursery 
of  the  hardiest  sailors  of  France.  Having  visited  Labrador, 
he  longed  to  penetrate  farther;  and  sailing  in  April,  1534,  he 
visited  Newfoundland  and  the  Bay  of  Chaleur,  and  set  up  a 
cross  at  Gaspe,  telling  the  natives  with  pious  fraud  that  it  was 
only  intended  for  a  beacon.  He  then  sailed  up  the  St.  Law- 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS. 


I II 


rence  nearly  to  Anticosti,  supposing  that  this  great  stream 
was  the  long- sought  passage  to  Cathay  and  the  Indies.  The 
next  year  he  sailed  again,  with  three  vessels,  and  for  the  first 
time  described  to  the  world  what  he  calls  "  the  river  of  Hoche- 
laga."  He  applied  the  name  of  Canada  to  a  certain  part  of 


JACQUES   CARTIER. 


the  banks  of  the  St.  Lawrence,  calling  all  below  Saguenay,  and 
all  above  Hochelaga,  these  being  Indian  names.  There  has 
been,  however,  much  discussion  about  the  word  "  Canada," 
which  means  "  a  village "  in  certain  Indian  dialects,  and  also 
signifies,  curiously  enough,  "  a  ravine  "  in  Spanish,  and  "  a  lane  " 
in  Portuguese. 


112  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

In  the  greatest  delight  over  the  beauty  of  the  river,  the 
Frenchmen  sailed  onward.  They  visited  Stadacone,  the  site 
of  Quebec,  and  Hochelaga,  the  site  of  Montreal,  Cartier  be 
ing  the  first  to  give  the  name  of  Mont  Royal  to  the  neigh 
boring  mountain.  At  Hochelaga  they  found  the  carefully 
built  forts  of  the  Indians,  which  Cartier  minutely  describes, 
and  the  large  communal  houses  already  mentioned.  They 
met  everywhere  with  a  cordial  reception,  except  that  the  In 
dians  brought  to  bear  strange  pretences  to  keep  them  from 
ascending  the  river  too  far.  The  chief  device  was  the  fol 
lowing. 

While  the  Frenchmen  lay  at  Stadacone  they  saw  one 
morning  a  boat  come  forth  from  the  woods  bearing  three  men 
"  dressed  like  devils,  wrapped  in  dogs'  skins,  white  and  black, 
their  faces  besmeared  as  black  as  any  coals,  with  horns  on 
their  heads  more  than  a  yard  long,"  and  as  this  passed  the 
ships,  one  of  the  men  made  a  long  oration,  neither  of  them 
looking  towards  the  ships ;  then  they  all  three  fell  flat  in  the 
boat,  when  the  Indians  came  out  to  meet  them,  and  guided 
them  to  the  shore.  It  was  afterwards  explained  that  these 
were  messengers  from  the  god  Cudraigny,  to  tell  the  French 
men  to  go  no  farther  lest  they  should  perish  with  cold.  The 
Frenchmen  answered  that  the  alleged  god  was  but  a  fool — that 
Jesus  Christ  would  protect  his  followers  from  cold.  Then  the 
Indians,  dancing  and  shouting,  accepted  this  interpretation, 
and  made  no  further  objection.  But  when  at  a  later  period 
Cartier  and  his  companions  passed  the  dreary  winter,  first  of 
all  Europeans,  in  what  he  called  the  Harbor  of  the  Holy  Cross 
— somewhere  on  the  banks  of  the  St.  Charles  River — he  learned 
by  suffering  that  the  threats  of  the  god  Cudraigny  had  some 
terror  in  them,  after  all.  He  returned  to  France  the  following 
summer,  leaving  no  colony  in  the  New  World. 

For  the  first  French  efforts  at  actual  colonization  we  must 
look  southward  on  the  map  of  America  again,  and  trace  the 


JACQUES  CARTIER   SETTING    UP  A  CROSS  AT   GASPE. 


THE  FRENCH  VO  YA  GE  URS.  1 1 5 

career  of  a  different  class  of  Frenchmen.  It  would  have 
needed  but  a  few  minor  changes  in  the  shifting  scenes  of  his 
tory  to  have  caused  North  America  to  have  been  colonized 
by  French  Protestants,  instead  of  French  Catholics.  After 
Villegagnon  and  his  Huguenots  had  vainly  attempted  a  colony 
at  Rio  Janeiro  in  1555,  Jean  Ribaut,  with  other  Huguenots, 


THE    LANDING   OF  JEAN    RIBAUT. 


made  an  actual  settlement  seven  years  later,  upon  what  is  now 
the  South  Carolina  coast.  At  his  first  approach  to  land,  the 
Indians  assembled  on  the  shore,  offering  their  own  garments 
to  the  French  officers,  and  pointing  out  their  chief,  who  re 
mained  sitting  on  boughs  of  laurel  and  palm.  All  the  early 
experience  of  the  Frenchmen  with  the  natives  was  marked  by 
this  gentleness,  and  by  a  very  ill -requited  hospitality.  Then 


Il6  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

sailing  to  what  is  now  the  St.  John's  River,  and  arriving  on 
May-day,  they  called  it  "  River  of  May,"  and  found  in  it  that 
charm  which  it  has  held  for  all  explorers,  down  to  the  succes 
sive  military  expeditions  that  occupied  and  abandoned  it  dur 
ing  our  own  civil  war.  Here  they  were  again  received  by  a 
picturesque  crowd  of  savages,  wading  into  the  water  up  to 
their  shoulders,  and  bringing  little  baskets  of  maize  and  of 
white  and  red  mulberries,  while  others  offered  to  help  their 
visitors  ashore.  Other  rivers  also  the  Frenchmen  visited, 
naming  them  after  rivers  of  France  —  the  Seine,  the  Loire — 
and  then  sailing  farther  north,  they  entered  Port  Royal  Har 
bor,  "  finding  the  same  one  of  the  fayrest  and  greatest  Havens 
of  the  worlde,"  says  the  quaint  old  translation  of  Thomas 
Hackit.  Here  they  left  behind  a  colony  of  thirty  men,  under 
Albert  de  la  Pierria,  to  complete  a  fort  called  Charlesfort.  It 
was  the  only  Christian  colony  north  of  Mexico,  and  the  site 
of  the  fort,  though  still  disputed,  was  undoubtedly  not  far 
from  Beaufort,  South  Carolina.  The  lonely  colonists  spent  a 
winter  of  absolute  poverty  and  wretchedness.  They  were  fed 
by  the  Indians,  and  wronged  them  in  return.  They  built  for 
themselves  vessels  in  which  they  sailed  for  France,  reaching 
it  after  sufferings  too  great  to  tell. 

Still  another  French  Protestant  colony  followed  in  1564, 
led  by  Rene  de  Laudonniere.  He  too  sought  the  "  River  of 
May;"  he  too  was  cordially  received  by  the  Indians;  and  he 
built  above  what  is  now  called  St.  John's  Bluff,  on  the  river 
of  that  name,  a  stronghold  called  Fort  Caroline.  "  The  place 
is  so  pleasant,"  wrote  he,  "  that  those  which  are  melancholike 
would  be  enforced  to  change  their  humor."  The  adventures 
of  this  colony  are  told  in  the  narrative  of  the  artist  Le  Moyne 
— lately  reproduced,  with  heliotypes  of  all  his  quaint  illustra 
tions,  by  J.  R.  Osgood  &  Co.,  Boston.  These  designs  —  some 
of  which  I  am  permitted  by  the  publishers  to  copy  —  are  so 
graphic  that  we  seem  in  the  midst  of  the  scenes  described. 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS. 


INDIAN   DWELLING   AND  CANOE. 


They  set  before  us  the  very  costumes  of  the  Frenchmen,  and 
the  absence  of  costume  among  the  Indians.  We  see  the  do 
mestic  habits,  the  religious  sacrifices,  the  warlike  contests,  the 
Indian  faces  alone  being  conventionalized,  and  made  far  too 
European  for  strict  fidelity.  We  see  also  the  animals  that 
•excited  the  artist's  wonder,  and  especially  the  alligator,  which 
is  rendered  with  wonderful  accuracy,  though  exaggerated  in 
.size.  We  see  here  also  the  column  which  had  been  erected 
by  Ribaut  on  his  previous  voyage,  and  how  the  Indians  had 
decked  it,  after  worshipping  there  as  at  an  altar. 

The  career  of  the  colony  was  a  tragedy.  Fort  Caroline 
was  built ;  the  colonists  mutinied,  and  sought  to  become  bucca 
neers,  "calling  us  cowards  and  greenhorns,"  says  Le  Moyne, 

8* 


18 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


"for  not  joining  in  the  piracy."  Failing  miserably  in  this,  and 
wearing  out  the  patience  of  their  generous  Indian  friends,  they 
almost  perished  of  famine.  The  very  fact  that  they  were  a 
Protestant  colony  brought  with  it  a  certain  disadvantage,  so 
long  as  the  colonists  were  French.  Protestantism  in  England 
reached  the  lower  classes,  but  never  in  France.  The  Hugue- 


INDIANS   DECORATING   RIBAUT  S   PILLAR. 


nots  belonged,  as  a  rule,  to  the  middle  and  higher  classes,  and 
the  peasants,  so  essential  to  the  foundation  of  a  colony,  would 
neither  emigrate  nor  change  their  religion.  There  were  plenty 
of  adventurers,  but  no  agriculturists.  The  English  Hawkins 
visited  and  relieved  them.  Ribaut  came  from  France  and 
again  gave  them  aid,  and  their  lives  were  prolonged  only  to 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  119 

meet  cruel  destruction  from  the  energy  and  perfidy  of  a  Span 
iard,  Don  Pedro  de  Menendez.  He  came  with  a  great  squad 
ron  of  thirty-four  vessels — his  flag-ship  being  nearly  a  thousand 
tons  burden  —  to  conquer  and  settle  the  vast  continent,  then 
known  as  Florida.  Parkman  has  admirably  told  the  story  of 
Menendez's  victory ;  suffice  it  to  say  that  he  overcame  the 
little  colony,  and  then,  after  taking  an  oath  upon  the  Bible, 
adding  the  sign  of  the  cross,  and  giving  a  pledge,  written  and 
sealed,  to  spare  their  lives,  he  proceeded  to  massacre  every 
man  in  cold  blood,  sparing  only,  as  Le  Moyne  tells  us,  a  drum 
mer,  a  fifer,  and  a  fiddler.  It  is  the  French  tradition  that  he 
hanged  his  prisoners  on  trees,  with  this  inscription :  "  I  do  this 
not  as  to  Frenchmen,  but  as  to  Lutherans."  This  was  the 
same  Menendez  who  in  that  same  year  (1565)  had  founded 
the  Spanish  colony  of  St.  Augustine,  employing  for  this  pur 
pose  the  negro  slaves  he  had  brought  from  Africa — the  first 
introduction,  probably,  of  slave  labor  upon  the  soil  now  includ 
ed  in  the  United  States.  Menendez  was  the  true  type  of  the 
Spanish  conqueror  of  that  day  —  a  race  of  whom  scarcely  one 
in  a  thousand,  as  poor  Le  Moyne  declares,  was  capable  of  a 
sensation  of  pity. 

Menendez  thanked  God  with  tears  for  his  victory  over  the 
little  garrison.  But  his  act  aroused  a  terrible  demand  for  ven 
geance  in  France,  and  this  eager  desire  was  satisfied  by  a 
Frenchman  —  this  time  by  one  who  was  probably  not  a  Hu 
guenot,  but  a  Catholic.  Dominique  de  Gourgues  had  been 
chained  to  the  oar  as  a  galley-slave  when  a  prisoner  to  the 
Spaniards,  and  finding  his  king  unable  or  unwilling  to  avenge 
the  insult  given  to  his  nation  in  America,  De  Gourgues  sold 
his  patrimony  that  he  might  organize  an  expedition  of  his 
own.  It  is  enough  to  say  that  he  absolutely  annihilated,  in 
1568,  the  colony  that  Menendez  had  left  behind  him  in  Flor 
ida,  and  hanged  the  Spaniards  to  the  same  trees  where  they 
had  hanged  the  French,  nailing  above  them  this  inscription : 


120 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


DOMINIQUE   DE  GOURGUES   AVENGING   THE  MURDER   OF  THE   HUGUENOT  COLONY. 


"  I  do  this  not  as   to  Spaniards  or  Moors  (Marannes\  but  as 
to  traitors,  robbers,  and  murderers." 

All  these  southern  and  Protestant  colonies  failed  at  last. 
It  was  farther  north,  in  the  lands  of  the  most  zealous  of  Ro 
man  Catholics,  and  in  the  regions  explored  long  since  by  Car- 
tier,  that  the  brilliant  career  of  French  colonization  in  Amer 
ica  was  to  have  its  course.  Yet  for  many  years  the  French 
voyages  to  the  north-eastern  coasts  of  America  were  for  fish 
ing  or  trade,  not  religion :  the  rover  went  before  the  priest. 
The  Cabots  are  said  by  Peter  Martyr  to  have  found  in  use 
on  the  Banks  of  Newfoundland  the  \\ordiJ3accalaos  as  applied 
to  cod-fish;  and  as  this  is  a  Basque  word,  the  fact  has  led 
some  writers  to  believe  that  the  Basque  fishermen  had  already 
reached  there,  though  this  argument  is  not  now  generally 
admitted.  Cape  Breton,  which  is  supposed  to  be  the  oldest 
French  name  on  the  continent  of  North  America,  belongs  to 
a  region  described  on  a  Portuguese  map  of  1520  as  "discov 
ered  by  the  Bretons."  There  were  French  fishing  vessels  off 
Newfoundland  in  1517,  and  in  1578  there  were  as  many  as 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS. 


121 


one  hundred  and  fifty  of  these,  all  other  nations  furnishing 
but  two  hundred.  Out  of  these  voyages  had  grown  tempo 
rary  settlements,  and  the  fur  trade  sprang  up  by  degrees  at 
Anticosti,  at  Sable  Island,  and  especially  at  Tadoussac.  It  be 
came  rapidly  popular,  so  that  \vhen  two  nephews  of  Cartier 
obtained  a  monopoly  of  it  for  twelve  years,  the  news  pro 
duced  an  uproar,  and  the  patent  was  revoked.  Through  this 
trade  Frenchmen  learned  the  charm  of  the  wilderness,  and 
these  charms  attracted  then,  as  always,  a  very  questionable 
class  of  men.  Cartier,  in  1541,  was  authorized  to  ransack  the 
prisons  for  malefactors.  De  la  Roche,  in  1598,  brought  a  crew 
of  convicts.  De  Monts,  in  1604,  was  authorized  to  impress 
idlers  and  vagabonds  for  his  colony.  To  keep  them  in  order 
he  brought  both  Catholic  priests  and  Huguenot  ministers, 
who  disputed  heartily  on  the  \vay.  u  I  have  seen  our  cure 
and  the  minister,"  said  Champlain,  in  Parkman's  translation, 


"HE    BROUGHT    BOTH    CATHOLIC    PRIESTS    AND    HUGUENOT   MINISTERS,  WHO    DIS 
PUTED    HEARTILY   ON   THE   WAY." 


122  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

"fall  to  with  their  fists  on  questions  of  faith.  I  cannot  say 
which  had  the  more  pluck,  or  which  hit  the  harder,  but  I 
know  that  the  minister  sometimes  complained  to  the  Sieur 
de  Monts  that  he  had  been  beaten." 

The  Jesuits  reached  New  France  in  1611,  and  from  that 
moment  the  religious  phase  of  the  emigration  began.  But 
their  .style  of  missionary  effort  was  very  unlike  that  severe 
type  of  religion  which  had  made  the  very  name  of  Chris 
tian  hated  in  the  days  when  Christian  meant  Spaniard,  and 
when  the  poor  Florida  Indians  had  exclaimed,  in  despair, 
"The  devil  is- the  best  thing  in  the  world:  we  adore  him." 
The  two  bodies  of  invaders  held  the  same  faith,  acknowl 
edged  the  same  spiritual  chief ;  but  here  the  resemblance 
ended.  From  the  beginning  the  Spaniards  came  as  cruel 
and  merciless  masters  ;  the  Frenchmen,  with  few  exceptions, 
as  kindly  and  genial  companions.  The  Spanish  invaders  were 
more  liberal  in  the  use  of  Scripture  than  any  Puritan,  but 
they  were  also  much  more  formidable  in  the  application  of 
it.  They  maintained  unequivocally  that  the  earth  belonged  to 
the  elect,  and  that  they  were  the  elect.  The  famous  "  Requisi 
tion,"  which  was  to  be  read  by  the  Spanish  commanders  on 
entering  each  province  for  conquest,  gave  the  full  Bible  nar 
rative  of  the  origin  of  the  human  race,  announced  the  lord 
ship  of  St.  Peter,  the  gift  of  the  New  World  to  Spain  by  his 
successor  the  Pope ;  and  deduced  from  all  this  the  right  to 
compel  the  natives  to  adopt  the  true  religion.  If  they  refused, 
they  might  rightfully  be  enslaved  or  killed.  The  learned  Dr. 
Pedro  Santander,  addressing  the  king  in  1557  in  regard  to 
De  Soto's  expedition,  wrote  thus : 

"This  is  the  land  promised  by  the  Eternal  Father  to  the  faithful,  since 
we  are  commanded  by  God  in  the  Holy  Scriptures  to  take  it  from  them,  being 
idolaters,  and  by  reason  of  their  idolatry  and  sin  to  put  them  all  to  the 
knife,  leaving  no  living  thing  save  maidens  and  children,  their  cities  robbed 
and  sacked,  their  walls  and  houses  levelled  to  the  earth." 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  12$ 

In  another  part  of  the  same  address  the  author  describes 
Florida  as  "  now  in  possession  of  the  Demon,"  and  the  natives 
as  "  lost  sheep  which  have  been  snatched  away  by  the  dragon, 
the  Demon."  There  is  no  doubt  that  a  genuine  superstition 
entered  into  the  gloomy  fanaticism  of  the  Spaniards.  When 
Columbus  brought  back  from  one  of  his  voyages  some  native 
chiefs  whose  garments  and  ornaments  were  embroidered  with 
cats  and  owls,  the  curate  Bernaldez  announced  without  hesi 
tation  that  these  grotesque  forms  represented  the  deities  whom 
these  people  worshipped.  It  is  astonishing  how  much  easier 
it  is  to  justify  one's  self  in  taking  away  a  man's  property  or 
his  life  when  one  is  thoroughly  convinced  that  he  worships 
the  devil.  At  any  rate,  the  Spaniards  acted  upon  this  prin 
ciple.  Twelve  years  after  the  first  discovery  of  Hispaniola,  as 
Columbus  himself  writes,  six-sevenths  of  the  natives  were  dead 
through  ill-treatment. 

But  the  French  pioneers  were  perfectly  indifferent  to  these 
superstitions ;  embroidered  cat  or  Scriptural  malediction  trou 
bled  them  very  little.  They  came  for  trade,  for  exploration, 
for  peaceful  adventure,  and  also  for  religion ;  but  almost  from 
the  beginning  they  adapted  themselves  to  the  Indians,  urged 
on  them  their  religion  only  in  a  winning  way ;  and  as  to  their 
ways  of  living,  were  willing  to  be  more  Indian  than  the  In 
dians  themselves.  The  instances  of  the  contrary  were  to  be 
found,  not  among  the  Roman  Catholic  French,  but  among  the 
Huguenots  in  Florida. 

The  spirit  which  was  exceptional  in  the  benevolent  Span 
ish  monk  Las  Casas  was  common  among  French  priests.  The 
more  profoundly  they  felt  that  the  Indians  were  by  nature 
children  of  Satan,  the  more  they  gave  soul  and  body  for  their 
conversion.  Pere  Le  Caron,  travelling  with  the  Hurons,  writes 
frankly  about  his  infinite  miseries,  and  adds :  "  But  I  must 
needs  tell  you  what  abundant  consolation  I  found  under  all 
my  troubles,  for,  alas !  when  one  sees  so  many  infidels  need- 


124  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

ing  nothing  but  a  drop  of  water  to  make  them  children  of 
God,  he  feels  an  inexpressible  ardor  to  labor  for  their  conver 
sion,  and  sacrifice  to  it  his  repose  and  his  life."  At  times,  no 
doubt,  the  Frenchmen  would  help  one  Indian  tribe  against 
another,  and  this  especially  against  the  Iroquois ;  but  in  gen 
eral  the  French  went  as  friendly  associates,  the  Spaniards  as 
brutal  task-masters. 

The  first  French  colonists  were  rarely  such  in  the  English 
or  even  the  Spanish  sense.  They  were  priests  or  soldiers  or 
traders — the  latter  at  first  predominating.  They  did  not  offer 
to  buy  the  lands  of  the  Indians,  as  the  English  colonists  after 
wards  did,  for  an  agricultural  colony  was  not  their  aim.  They 
wished  to  wander  through  the  woods  with  the  Indians,  to  join 
in  their  hunting  and  their  wars,  and,  above  all,  to  obtain  their 
furs.  For  this  they  were  ready  to  live  as  the  Indians  lived,, 
in  all  their  discomforts ;  they  addressed  them  as  "  brothers " 
or  as  "  children  ,"  they  married  Indian  wives  with  full  church 
ceremonies.  No  such  freedom  of  intercourse  marked  the  life 
of  any  English  settlers.  The  Frenchmen  apparently  liked  to 
have  the  Indians  with  them ;  the  savages  were  always  coming 
and  going,  in  full  glory,  about  the  French  settlements ;  they 
feasted  and  slept  beside  the  French ;  they  were  greeted  with 
military  salutes.  The  stately  and  brilliant  Comte  de  Fronte- 
nac,  the  favorite  officer  of  Turenne,  and  the  intimate  friend 
of  La  Grande  Mademoiselle,  did  not  disdain,  when  Governor- 
general  of  Canada,  to  lead  in  person  the  war -dance  of  his 
Indians,  singing  and  waving  the  hatchet,  while  a  wigwam  full 
of  braves,  stripped  and  painted  for  war,  went  dancing  and 
howling  after  him,  shouting  like  men  possessed,  as  the  French 
narratives  say.  He  himself  admits  that  he  did  it  deliberately, 
in  order  to  adopt  their  ways.  (Je  leur  mis  moy-mesme  la  hache 
a  la  'main  .  .  .  poiir  maccommoder  a  leurs  famous  de  faired) 
Perhaps  no  single  act  ever  done  by  a  Frenchman  explains  so 
well  how  they  won  the  hearts  of  the  Indians. 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  12$ 

The  pageantry  of  the  Roman  Catholic  Church  had,  more 
over,  its  charm  for  native  converts ;  the  French  officers  taught 
them  how  to  fight;  the  French  priests  taught  them  how  to 
die.  These  heroic  missionaries  could  bear  torture  like  In 
dians,  and  could  forgive  their  tormentors  as  Indians  could  not. 
This  combination  of  gentleness  with  courage  was  something 
wholly  new  to  the  Indian  philosophy  of  life.  Pere  Brebeuf 
wrote  to  Rome  from  Canada :  "  That  which  above  all  things 
is  demanded  of  laborers  in  this  vineyard  is  an  unfailing  sweet 
ness  and  a  patience  thoroughly  tested."  And  when  he  died 
by  torture  in  1649  he  so  conducted  himself  that  the  Indians 
drank  his  blood,  and  the  chief  devoured  his  heart,  in  the  hope 
that  they  might  share  his  heroism. 

But  while  the  missionaries  were  thus  gentle  and  patient 
with  their  converts,  their  modes  of  appeal  included  the  whole 
range  of  spiritual  terrors.  Pere  Le  Jeune  wrote  home  ear 
nestly  for  pictures  of  devils  tormenting  the  soul  with  fire,  ser 
pents,  and  red-hot  pincers;  Pere  Gamier,  in  a  manuscript 
letter  copied  by  Mr.  Parkman,  asks  for  pictures  of  demons 
and  dragons,  and  suggests  that  a  single  representation  of  a 
happy  or  beautiful  soul  will  be  enough.  "  The  pictures  must 
not  be  in  profile,  but  in  full  face,  looking  squarely  and  with 
open  eyes  at  the  beholder,  and  all  in  bright  colors,  without 
flowers  or  animals,  which  only  distract."  But,  after  all,  so  es 
sentially  different  was  the  French  temperament  from  the 
Spanish  that  the  worst  French  terrors  seemed  more  kindly 
and  enjoyable  than  the  most  cheerful  form  of  Spanish  devo 
tion.  The  Spaniards  offered  only  the  threats  of  future  tor 
ment,  and  the  certainty  of  labor  and  suffering  here.  But  the 
French  won  the  Indians  by  precisely  the  allurements  that  to 
this  day  draw  strangers  from  all  the  world  to  Paris — a  joyous 
out-door  life  and  an  unequalled  cookery.  "  I  remember,"  says 
Lescarbot,  describing  his  winter  in  Canada,  "that  on  the  I4th 
of  January  (1607),  °f  a  Sunday  afternoon,  we  amused  ourselves 


126  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

with  singing  and  music  on  the  river  Equille,  and  that  in  the 
same  month  we  went  to  see  the  wheat-fields  two  leagues  from 
the  fort,  and  dined  merrily  in  the  sunshine."  At  these  feasts 
there  was  hardly  a  distinction  between  the  courtly  foreigner 
and  the  naked  Indian,  and  even  the  coarse  aboriginal  palate 
felt  that  here  was  some  one  who  would  teach  a  new  felicity. 
Mr.  Parkman  tells  us  of  a  convert  who  asked,  when  at  the 
point  of  death,  whether  he  might  expect  any  pastry  in  heaven 
like  that  with  which  the  French  had  regaled  him. 

In  return  for  these  blandishments  it  was  not  very  hard  for 
the  Indians  to  accept  the  picturesque  and  accommodating 
faith  of  their  guests.  This  was  not  at  first  done  very  rever 
ently,  to  be  sure.  Sometimes  when  the  early  missionaries 
asked  their  converts  for  the  proper  words  to  translate  the 
sacred  phrases  of  the  catechism,  their  mischievous  proselytes 
would  give  them  very  improper  words  instead,  and  then  would 
shout  with  delight  whenever  the  priests  began  their  lessons. 
Dr.  George  E.  Ellis,  in  his  valuable  book  "  The  Red  Man  and 
the  White  Man,"  points  out  that  no  such  trick  was  ever  at 
tempted,  so  far  as  we  know,  beneath  the  graver  authority  of 
the  apostle  Eliot,  when  his  version  of  the  Scriptures  was  in 
progress.  In  some  cases  the  native  criticisms  took  the  form 
of  more  serious  remonstrance.  Membertou,  one  of  the  most 
influential  of  the  early  Indian  converts,  said  frankly  that  he 
did  not  like  the  -petition  for  daily  bread  in  the  Lord's  Prayer, 
and  thought  that  some  distinct  allusion  to  moose  meat  and 
fish  would  be  far  better. 

To  these  roving  and  companionable  Frenchmen,  or,  rather, 
to  the  native  canoe-men,  who  were  often  their  half-breed  pos 
terity,  was  given  at  a  later  period  the  name  voyagenrs  —  a 
name  still  used  for  the  same  class  in  Canada,  though  it  de 
scribes  a  race  now  vanishing.  I  have  ventured  to  anticipate 
its  date  a  little,  and  apply  it  to  the  French  rovers  of  this  early 
period,  because  it  is  one  of  those  words  which  come  sponta- 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS. 


127 


neously  into  use,  tell  their  own  story,  and  save  much  descrip 
tion.  The  character  that  afterwards  culminated  in  the  class 
called  voyageurs  was  the  character  which  lay  behind  all  the  early 
French  enterprises.  It  implied  those  roving  qualities  which 
led  the  French  to  be  pioneers  in  the  fisheries  and  the  fur 
trade  ;  and  which,  even  after  the  arrival  of  the  Jesuit  mission 
aries,  still  prevailed  under  the  blessing  of  the  Church.  The 
Spaniards  were  gloomy  despots ;  the  Dutch  and  Swedes  were 
traders ;  the  English,  at  least  in  New  England,  were  religious 
enthusiasts ;  the  French  were  voyageurs,  and  even  under  the 
narrative  of  the  most  heroic  and  saintly  priest  we  see  some 
thing  of  the  same  spirit.  The  best  early  type  of  the  voyageur 
temperament  combined  with  the  courage  of  the  Church  mili 
tant  is  to  be  found  in  Samuel  de  Champlain. 

After  all,  there  is  no  earthly  immortality  more  secure  than 
to  have  stamped  one's  name  on  the  map ;  and  that  of  Cham- 
plain  will  be  forever  associ 
ated  with  the  beautiful  lake 
which  he  first  described, 
and  to  which  the  French 
missionaries  vainly  attempt 
ed  to  attach  another  name. 
Champlain  was  a  French 
man  of  good  family,  who 
had  served  in  the  army, 
and  had,  indeed,  been  from 
his  childhood  familiar  with 
scenes  of  war,  because  he 
had  dwelt  near  the  famous 
city  of  Rochelle,  the  very 
hot -bed  of  the  civil  strife 
between  Catholics  and  Hu 
guenots.  Much  curiosity  existing  in  France  in  regard  to  the 
great  successes  of  Spain  in  America,  he  obtained  naval  em- 


' 


SAMUEL   DE   CHAMPLAIN. 


128  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

ployment  in  the  Spanish  service,  and  visited,  as  commander 
of  a  ship,  the  Spanish-American  colonies.  This  was  in  1599, 
and  he  wrote  a  report  on  the  condition  of  all  these  regions — 
a  report  probably  fuller  than  anything  else  existing  at  that 
time,  inasmuch  as  the  Spaniards  systematically  concealed  the 
details  of  their  colonial  wealth.  Little  did  they  know  that 
they  had  in  the  humble  French  captain  *of  the  Saint -Julian 
an  untiring  observer,  who  would  reveal  to  the  acute  mind  of 
Henry  the  Fourth  of  France  many  of  the  secrets  of  Spanish 
domination ;  and  would  also  disgust  the  French  mind  with 
pictures  of  the  fanaticism  of  their  rivals.  In  his  report  he 
denounced  the  cruelty  of  the  Spaniards,  described  the  way  in 
which  they  converted  Indians  by  the  Inquisition,  and  made 
drawings  of  the  burnings  of  heretics  by  priests.  His  observa 
tions  on  all  commercial  matters  were  of  the  greatest  value, 
and  he  was  the  first,  or  one  of  the  first,  to  suggest  a  ship- 
canal  across  the  isthmus  of  Panama.  Full  of  these  vivid  im 
pressions  of  Spanish  empire,  he  turned  his  attention  towards 
the  northern  part  of  the  continent,  in  regions  unsettled  by 
the  Spaniards,  visiting  them  first  in  1603,  under  Pont -Grave, 
and  then  in  seven  successive  voyages.  His  narratives  are 
minute,  careful,  and  graphic;  he  explored  river  after  river 
with  the  Indians,  eating  and  sleeping  with  them,  and  record 
ing  laboriously  their  minutest  habits.  It  is  to  his  descriptions, 
beyond  any  others,  that  we  must  look  for  faithful  pictures  of 
the  Indian  absolutely  unaffected  by  contact  with  white  men; 
and  his  voyages,  which  have  lately  been  translated  by  Dr. 
C.  P.  Otis,  and  published  by  the  Prince  Society,  with  anno 
tations  by  Mr.  E.  F.  Slafter,  have  a  value  almost  unique. 

Champlain  himself  may  be  best  described  as  a  devout  and 
high-minded  voyageur.  He  was  a  good  Catholic,  and  on  some 
of  his  exploring  expeditions  he  planted  at  short  intervals 
crosses  of  white  cedar  in  token  of  his  faith ;  but  we  see  the 
born  rover  through  the  proselyting  Christian.  Look,  for  in- 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  129 

stance,  at  the  spirit  in  which  he  dedicates  his  voyage  of  1604 
to  the  Queen  Regent: 

"  MADAME, — Of  all  the  most  useful  and  excellent  arts,  that  of  navigation 
"has  always  seemed  to  me  to  occupy  the  first  place.  For  the  more  hazardous 
it  is  and  the  more  numerous  the  perils  and  losses  by  which  it  is  attended,  so 
much  the  more  is  it  esteemed  and  exalted  above  all  others,  being  wholly  un- 
suited  to  the  timid  and  irresolute.  By  this  art  we  obtain  knowledge  of  differ 
ent  countries,  regions,  and  realms.  By  it  we  attract  and  bring  to  our  own 
land  all  kinds  of  riches,  by  it  the  idolatry  of  paganism  is  overthrown  and 
•Christianity  proclaimed  throughout  all  the  regions  of  the  earth.  This  is  the 
art  which  from  my  early  age  has  won  my  love,  and  induced  me  to  expose  my 
self  all  my  life  to  the  impetuous  waves  of  the  ocean,  and  led  me  to  explore  the 
coasts  of  a  part  of  America,  especially  of  New  France,  where  I  have  always 
desired  to  see  the  lily  flourish,  and  also  the  only  religion,  catholic,  apostolic, 
and  Roman." 

Here  we  have  the  French  lilies  and  the  holy  Catholic  re 
ligion  at  the  end,  but  the  impulse  of  the  voyageur  through  all 
the  rest.  We  see  here  the  born  wanderer,  as  full  of  eagerness 
as  Tennyson's  Ulysses, 

"Always  roaming  with  a  hungry  heart." 

And  when  we  compare  this  frank  and  sailor-like  address  with 
the  devout  diplomacy,  already  quoted,  of  the  Spanish  doctor, 
we  see  in  how  absolutely  different  a  spirit  the  men  of  these 
two  nations  approached  the  American  Indians. 

Champlain  was  an  ardent  lover  of  out-door  life,  and  an  in 
telligent  field  naturalist,  and  the  reader  finds  described  or  men 
tioned  in  his  narratives  many  objects  now  familiar,  but  then 
strange.  He  fully  describes,  for  instance,  the  gar-pike  of  West 
ern  lakes,  he  mentions  the  moose  under  the  Algonquin  name 
"  orignac,"  the  seal  under  the  name  of  "  sea-lion,"  the  musk-rat, 
and  the  horseshoe-crab.  He  describes  almost  every  point  and 
harbor  on  the  north-east  coast,  giving  the  names  by  which 
many  of  them  are  since  known  ;  for  instance,  Mount  Desert, 
which  he  calls  Isle  des  Monts  Deserts,  meaning  simply  Desert 

9 


130 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


Mountains,  so  that  the  accent  need  not  be  laid,  as  is  now  usual, 
on  the  second  syllable.  We  know  from  him  that  while  yet  un- 
visited  by  white  men,  the  Indians  of  the  Lake  Superior  region 
not  only  mined  for  copper,  but  melted  it  into  sheets,  and  ham 
mered  it  into  shape,  making  bracelets  and  arrow-heads.  Car- 
tier,  in  1535,  had  mentioned  the  same  thing,  but  not  so  fully. 
And  all  Champlain's  descriptions,  whether  of  places  or  people,. 


CHAMPLAIN'S  FORTIFIED  RESIDENCE  AT  QUEBEC. 

have  the  value  that  comes  of  method  and  minuteness.  When 
he  ends  a  chapter  with  "  This  is  precisely  what  I  have  seen 
of  this  northern  shore,"  or,  "  This  is  what  I  have  learned  from 
those  savages,"  we  know  definitely  where  his  knowledge  begins 
and  ends,  and  whence  he  got  his  information. 

It  is  fortunate  for  the  picturesqueness  of  his  narrative  that 
he  fearlessly  ventures  into  the  regions  of  the  supernatural,  but 
always  upon  very  definite  and  decided  testimony.  It  would 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  131 

be  a  pity,  for  instance,  to  spare  the  Gougou  from  his  pages. 
The  Gougou  was  a  terrible  monster  reported  by  the  savages 
to  reside  on  an  island  near  the  Bay  of  Chaleur.  It  was  in  the 
form  of  a  woman,  but  very  frightful,  and  so  large  that  the 
masts  of  a  tall  vessel  would  not  reach  the  waist.  The  Gougou 
possessed  pockets,  into  which  he  —  or  she  —  used  to  put  the 
Indians  when  caught ;  and  those  who  had  escaped  said  that 
a  single  pocket  would  hold  a  ship.  From  this  receptacle  the 
victims  were  only  taken  out  to  be  eaten.  Several  savages  as 
sured  Champlain  that  they  had  seen  the  creature ;  many  had 
heard  the  horrible  noises  he  made ;  and  one  French  advent 
urer  had  sailed  so  near  his  dwelling-place  as  to  hea,r  a  strange 
hissing  from  that  quarter,  upon  which  all  his  Indian  compan 
ions  hid  themselves.  "  What  makes  me  believe  what  they  say," 
says  Champlain,  "  is  the  fact  that  all  the  savages  in  general 
fear  it,  and  tell  such  strange  things  about  it  that  if  I  were  to 
record  all  they  say  it  would  be  regarded  as  a  myth ;  but  I  hold 
that  this  is  the  dwelling-place  of  some  devil  that  torments 
them  in  the  above-mentioned  manner.  This  is  what  I  have 
learned  about  the  Gougou." 

Champlain  has  left  a  minute  description,  illustrated  by  his 
own  pencil,  of  his  successive  fortified  residences — first  at  what 
is  now  Douchet  Island,  named  originally  the  Island  of  the 
Holy  Cross,  and  afterwards  at  Port  Royal  and  Quebec.  Traces 
of  the  first- named  encampment  have  been  found  in  some  can 
non-balls,  one  of  which  is  now  in  possession  of  the  New  Eng 
land  Historic -Genealogical  Society.  His  journals  vividly  de 
scribe  his  winter  discomforts  in  America,  and  the  French  de 
vices  that  made  them  endurable.  He  also  gives,  as  has  been 
said,  minute  descriptions  of  the  Indians,  their  homes  and  their 
hunting,  their  feasting  and  fighting,  their  courage  and  super 
stitions.  His  relations  to  them  were,  like  those  of  other 
Frenchmen,  for  the  most  part  kindly  and  generous.  His  most 
formidable  act  of  kindness,  if  such  it  may  be  called,  was  when 


132 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


fv/e. 


82 


HE   RESTED    HIS    MUSKET." 


he  first  revealed  to  them  the  terrible 
power  of  fire-arms.  He  it  was,  of  all 
men,  who  began  for  them  that  series 
of  lessons  in  the  military  art  by 
which  the  Frenchmen  doubled  the 
terrors  of  Indian  warfare.  Cham- 
plain  has  portrayed  vividly  for  us 
with  pen  and  pencil  the  early  stages 
of  that  alliance  which  in  later  years 
made  the  phrase  "  French  and  In 
dian  "  the  symbol  of  all  that  was 
most  to  be  dreaded  in  the  way  of 

conflict.  He  describes  picturesquely,  for  instance,  an  occasion 
when  he  and  his  Algonquin  allies  marched  together  against 
the  Iroquois ;  and  his  Indians  told  him  if  he  could  only  kill 
three  particular  chiefs  for  them  they  should  win  the  day. 
Reaching  a  promontory  which  Mr.  Slafter  believes  to  have 
been  Ticonderoga,  they  saw  the  Iroquois  approaching,  with 
the  three  chiefs  in  front,  wearing  plumes.  Champlain  then 
told  his  own  allies  that  he  was  very  sorry  they  could  not 
understand  his  language  better,  for  he  could  teach  them  such 
order  and  method  in  attacking  their  enemies  that  they  would 
be  sure  of  victory;  but  meanwhile  he  would  do  what  he  could. 
Then  they  called  upon  him  with  loud  cries  to  stand  forward; 
and  so,  putting  him  twenty  paces  in  front,  they  advanced. 
Halting  within  thirty  paces  of  the  enemy,  he  rested  his 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  133 

musket  against  his  cheek  and  aimed  at  one  of  the  chiefs. 
The  musket — a  short  weapon,  then  called  an  arquebus — was 
loaded  with  four  balls.  Two  chiefs  fell  dead,  and  another  man 
was  mortally  wounded.  The  effect  upon  the  Iroquois  must 
have  been  like  that  of  fire  from  heaven.  These  chiefs  were 
dressed  in  armor  made  of  cotton  fibre,  and  arrow -proof,  yet 
they  died  in  an  instant !  The  courage  of  the  whole  band  gave 
way,  and  when  another  Frenchman  fired  a  shot  from  the 
woods,  they  all  turned  and  fled  precipitately,  abandoning  camp 
and  provisions — a  whole  tribe,  and  that  one  of  the  bravest, 
routed  by  two  shots  from  French  muskets.  This  was  in  July, 
1609. 

On  his  voyage  of  the  following  year  he  also  taught  the 
same  Indians  how  to  attack  a  fortified  place.  Until  that  time 
their  warlike  training  had  taught  them  only  how  to  track  a 
single  enemy  or  to  elude  him;  or  at  most,  gathered  in  solid 
masses,  to  pour  in  showers  of  arrows  furnished  with  those 
sharp  stone  heads  so  familiar  in  our  collections.  We  know 
from  descriptions  elsewhere  given  by  Champlain  that  the  chief 
strategy  of  the  Indians  lay  in  arranging  and  combining  these 
masses  of  bowmen.  This  they  planned  in  advance  by  means 
of  bundles  of  sticks  a  foot  long,  each  stick  standing  for  a  sol 
dier,  with  larger  sticks  for  chiefs.  Going  to  some  piece  of 
level  ground  five  or  six  feet  square,  the  head  chief  stuck  these 
sticks  in  the  ground  according  to  his  own  judgment.  Then 
he  called  his  companions,  and  they  studied  the  arrangements. 
It  was  a  plan  of  the  battle — a  sort  of  Indian  Kriegspiel^  like 
the  German  military  game  that  has  the  same  object.  The 
warriors  studied  the  sticks  under  the  eye  of  the  chief,  and 
comprehended  the  position  each  should  occupy.  Then  they 
rehearsed  it  in  successive  drills.  We  are  thus  able  to  under 
stand — what  would  otherwise  be  difficult  to  explain — the  com 
pact  and  orderly  array  which  Champlain's  pictures  represent. 

It  was  with  a  band  of  warriors  thus  trained  that  Champlain 


134 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


set  forth  from  Quebec,  in  June,  1610,  to  search  for  a  camp  of 
Iroquois.  The  Indian  guides  went  first,  armed,  painted,  naked, 
light-footed,  and  five  Frenchmen  marched  after  them,  arrayed 
in  heavy  corselets  for  defence,  and  bearing  guns  and  ammuni 
tion.  It  was  an  alliance  of  hare  and  tortoise,  but  in  this  case 
the  hare  kept  in  front.  Champlain  describes  their  discom- 


ATTACK    ON   AN   IROQUOIS    FORT. 

forts  as  they  tramped  in  their  heavy  accoutrements  through 
pathless  swamps,  with  water  reaching  to  their  knees,  far  be 
hind  their  impatient  leaders,  whose  track  they  found  it  hard 
to  trace.  Suddenly  they  came  upon  the  very  scene  where  the 
fight  had  begun,  and  when  the  savages  perceived  them,  "  they 
began  to  shout  so  that  one  could  not  have  heard  it  thunder." 
In  the  midst  of  this  tumult  Champlain  and  his  four  compan 
ions  approached  the  Iroquois  fortress  —  built  solidly  of  large 


THE  FRENCH  VOYAGEURS.  135 

trees  arranged  in  a  circle — and  coolly  began  to  fire  their  mus 
kets  through  the  logs  at  the  naked  savages  within.  He  thus 
describes  the  scene,  which  is  also  vividly  depicted  in  one  of 
his  illustrations,  here  given : 

"  You  could  see  the  arrows  fly  on  all  sides  as  thick  as  hail.  The  Iroquois 
were  astonished  at  the  noise  of  our  muskets,  and  especially  that  the  balls 
penetrated  better  than  their  arrows.  They  were  so  frightened  at  the  effect 
produced  that,  seeing  several  of  their  companions  fall  wounded  and  dead, 
they  threw  themselves  on  the  ground  whenever  they  heard  a  discharge,  sup 
posing  that  the  shots  were  sure.  We  scarcely  ever  missed  firing  two  or  three 
balls  at  one  shot,  resting  our  muskets  most  of  the  time  on  the  side  of  their 
barricade.  But  seeing  that  our  ammunition  began  to  fail,  I  said  to  all  the 
savages  that  it  was  necessary  to  break  down  their  barricades  and  capture  them 
by  storm,  and  that  in  order  to  accomplish  this  they  must  take  their  shields, 
•cover  themselves  with  them,  and  thus  approach  so  near  as  to  be  able  to  fasten 
stout  ropes  to  the  posts  that  supported  the  barricades,  and  pull  them  down  by 
main  strength,  in  that  way  making  an  opening  large  enough  to  permit  them  to 
enter  the  fort.  I  told  them  that  we  would  meanwhile,  by  our  musketry  fire, 
keep  off  the  enemy  as  they  endeavored  to  prevent  them  from  accomplishing 
this ;  also  that  a  number  of  them  should  get  behind  some  large  trees  which 
were  near  the  barricade,  in  order  to  throw  them  down  upon  the  enemy,  and 
that  others  should  protect  them  with  their  shields,  in  order  to  keep  the  enemy 
from  injuring  them.  All  this  they  did  very  promptly." 

Thus  were  the  military  lessons  begun — not  lessons  in  the 
use  of  fire-arms  alone,  but  in  strategy  and  offensive  tactics,  to 
which  the  same  class  of  instructors  were  destined  later  to  add 
an  improved  mode  of  fortification.  So  completely  did  Cham- 
plain  and  his  four  Frenchmen  find  themselves  the  masters  of 
the  situation,  that  when  some  young  fellows,  countrymen  of 
their  own,  and  still  better  types  of  the  voyageur  than  they 
themselves  were,  came  eagerly  up  the  river  in  some  trading 
barks  to  see  what  was  going  on,  Champlain  at  once  ordered 
the  savages  who  were  breaking  down  the  fortress  to  stop,  "  so 
that  the  new-comers  should  have  their  share  in  the  sport." 
He  then  gave  the  guns  to  the  young  French  traders,  and  let 
them  amuse  themselves  by  shooting  down  a  few  defenceless 
Iroquois  before  the  walls  fell. 


136  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

At  last  the  fort  yielded.  "  This,  then,  is  the  victory  ob 
tained  by  God's  grace,"  as  Champlain  proudly  says.  Out  of  a 
hundred  defenders,  only  fifteen  were  found  alive.  All  these 
were  put  to  death  by  tortures  except  one,  whom  Champlain 
manfully  claimed  for  his  share,  and  saved  ;  and  he  was  perhaps 
the  first  to  describe  fully  those  frightful  cruelties  and  that 
astonishing  fortitude  which  have  since  been  the  theme  of  so 
much  song  and  story,  and  to  point  out,  moreover,  that  in  these 
refinements  of  barbarity  the  women  exceeded  the  men.  Later 
they  were  joined  on  the  war-path  by  a  large  force  of  friendly 
Indians,  "  who  had  never  before  seen  Christians,  for  whom  they 
conceived  a  great  admiration."  This  admiration  was  not  des 
tined,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Spaniards  and  English,  to  undergo 
a  stern  reaction,  but  it  lasted  till  the  end  of  the  French  power 
on  the  American  continent,  and  did  a  great  deal  to  postpone 
that  end.  If  the  control  of  the  New  World  could  have  been 
secured  solely  through  the  friendship  and  confidence  of  its 
native  tribes,  North  America  would  have  been  wholly  French 
and  Roman  Catholic  to-day. 


VI. 

"AN  ENGLISH  NATION" 

SIR  WALTER  RALEIGH,  just  on  the  eve  of  his  fall 
from  greatness,  and  after  the  failure  of  nine  successive 
expeditions  to  America,  wrote  these  words :  "  I  shall  yet  live 
to  see  it  an  English  nation."  He  was  mistaken ;  he  did  not 
live  to  see  it,  although  his  fame  still  lives,  and  what  he  pre 
dicted  has  in  one  sense  come  to  pass.  The  vast  difference 
that  might  exist  between  a  merely  English  nation  and  an 
English  -  speaking  nation  had  never  dawned  upon  his  mind. 
All  that  "  History  of  the  World "  which  he  meditated  in  the 
Tower  of  London  contained  no  panorama  of  events  so  won 
derful  as  that  which  time  has  unrolled  in  the  very  scene  of 
his  labors. 

We  owe  to  Raleigh  not  merely  the  strongest  and  most 
persistent  impulse  towards  the  colonization  of  America,  but 
also  the  most  romantic  and  ideal  aspects  of  that  early  move 
ment.  He  it  is  who  has  best  described  for  us  the  charm  ex 
ercised  by  this  virgin  soil  over  the  minds  of  cultivated  men. 
Had  he  not  sought  to  win  it  for  a  virgin  queen,  it  would  still 
have  been  "  Virginia "  to  him.  With  what  insatiable  delight 
he  describes  the  aspects  of  nature  in  this  New  World ! 

.  "  I  never  saw  a  more  beawtifull  countrey,  nor  more  liuely  prospectes,  hils 
so  raised  heere  and  there  ouer  the  vallies,  the  riuer  winding  into  diuers 
braunches,  the  plaines  adioyning  without  bush  or  stubble,  all  faire  greene 
grasse,  the  ground  of  hard  sand  easy  to  march  on,  eyther  for  horse  or  foote. 


138  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

the  deare  crossing  in  euery  path,  the  birdes  towardes  the  euening  singing  on 
euery  tree,  with  a  thousand  seueral  tunes,  cranes  and  herons  of  white,  crimson, 
and  carnation  pearching  on  the  riuers  side,  the  ayre  fresh  with  a  gentle  easterlie 
wind,  and  euery  stone  that  we  stooped  to  take  vp  promised  eyther  golde  or 
siluer  by  his  complexion." 

Raleigh  represents  the  imaginative  and  glowing  side  of 
American  exploration — an  aspect  which,  down  to  the  days  of 
John  Smith,  remained  vividly  prominent,  and  which  had  not 
wholly  disappeared  even  under  the  graver  treatment  of  the 
Puritans. 

The  very  adventures  of  some  of  the  early  colonies  seem  to 
retain  us  in  the  atmosphere  of  those  vanishing  islands  and 
enchanted  cities  of  which  the  early  English  seamen  dreamed. 
Raleigh  sent  his  first  colony  to  Virginia  in  1585,  under  Ralph 
Lane;  in  1586  he  sent  a  ship  with  provisions  to  their  aid,. 
"  who,  after  some  time  spent  in  seeking  our  colony  up  and 
down,  and  not  finding  them,  returned  with  all  the  aforesaid 
provision  unto  England,"  the  colonists  having  really  departed 
"  out  of  that  paradise  of  the  world,"  as  Hakluyt  says — in  ves 
sels  furnished  by  Sir  Francis  Drake.  Then  followed  Sir  Rich 
ard  Grenville  with  three  vessels ;  but  he  could  find  neither 
relief-ship  nor  colony,  and  after  some  time  spent  in  the  same 
game  of  hide-and-seek,  he  landed  fifteen  men  in  the  island  of 
Roanoke,  with  two  years'  provisions,  to  take  possession  of  the 
country.  Then,  in  1587,  went  three  ships  containing  a  col 
ony  of  one  hundred  and  fifty,  under  John  White,  with  a  char 
tered  and  organized  corps  of  twelve  assistants,  under  the  sono 
rous  name  of  "  Governor  and  Assistants  of  the  City  of  Raleigh 
in  Virginia."  They  looked  for  Grenville's  fifteen  men,  but 
found  them  not,  and  found  only  deer  grazing  on  the  melons 
that  had  grown  within  the  roofless  houses  of  Lane's  colony. 
In  spite  of  these  dark  omens,  the  new  settlement  was  formed,, 
and  on  the  i8th  of  August,  1587 — as  we  read  in  Captain  John 
Smith's  "  Generall  Historic  of  Virginia,  New  England,  and  the 


-AN  ENGLISH  NA  TIONr  1 39 

Summer  Isles  " — "  Ellinor,  the  Governour's  daughter,  and  wife 
to  Ananias  Dare,  was  delivered  of  a  daughter,  in  Roanoak, 
which,  being  the  first  Christian  there  borne,  was  called  Vir 
ginia."  Here  at  least  was  something  permanent,  definite,  es 
tablished —  a  birth  and  a  christening,  the  beginning  of  "an 
English  nation,"  transferred  to  American  soil. 

Alas !  in  all  this  pathetic  series  of  dissolving  hopes  and  lost 
colonies,  the  career  of  the  little  Virginia  is  the  most  touching. 
Governor  White,  going  back  to  England  for  supplies  soon 
after  the  birth  of  his  grandchild,  left  in  the  colony  eighty-nine 
men,  seventeen  women,  and  eleven  children.  He  was  detained 
three  years,  and  on  his  return,  in  August,  1590,  he  found  no 
trace  of  the  colony  except  three  letters  "curiously  carved"  upon 
a  tree — the  letters  CRO — and  elsewhere,  upon  another  tree,  the 
word  "CROATOAN."  It  had  been  agreed  beforehand  that 
should  the  colony  be  removed,  the  name  of  their  destination 
should  be  carved  somewhere  conspicuously,  and  that  if  they 
were  in  distress  a  cross  should  be  carved  above.  These  trees 
bore  no  cross ;  but  the  condition  of  the  buildings  and  buried 
chests  of  the  colony  indicated  the  work  of  savages.  "  Though 
it  much  grieved  me,"  writes  the  anxious  and  wandering  father 
in  his  narrative,  "  yet  it  did  much  comfort  me  that  I  did  know 
they  were  at  Croatoan."  Before  the  ships  could  seek  the  isl 
and  of  Croatoan  they  were  driven  out  to  sea;  but  apparently 
those  in  charge  of  the  expedition  had  resolved  not  to  seek  it, 
Governor  White  being  but  a  passenger,  and  they  having  al 
ready  anchored  near  that  island  and  seen  no  signals  of  dis 
tress.  Twenty  years  after,  Powhatan  confessed  to  Captain  John 
Smith  that  he  had  been  at  the  murder  of  the  colonists.  Stra- 
chey,  secretary  of  the  Jamestown  settlement,  found  a  report 
among  the  Indians  of  a  race  who  dwelt  in  stone  houses,  which' 
they  had  been  taught  to  build  by  those  English  who  had  es 
caped  the  slaughter  of  Roanoke — these  being  farther  specified 
as  "fower  men,  two  boyes,  and  one  yonge  mayde,"  whom  a 


140  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

certain  chief  had  preserved  as  his  slaves.  Furthermore,  the- 
first  Virginia  settlers  found  at  an  Indian  village  a  boy  of  ten, 
with  yellow  hair  and  whitish  skin,  who  may  have  been  a  de 
scendant  of  these  ill-fated  survivors.  Thus  vanishes  from 
history  the  last  of  the  lost  colonies  and  every  trace  of  Vir 
ginia  Dare. 

The  first  colonists  farther  north  met  with  equal  failure  but 
less  of  tragedy.  No  children  were  born  to  them,  no  Christian 
maiden  ever  drifted  away  in  the  unfathomable  ocean  of  Indian 
mystery ;  they  consisted  of  men  only,  and  this  helped  to  ex 
plain  their  forlorn  career.  Bartholomew  Gosnold  crossed  the 
Atlantic  in  1602,  following  the  route  of  Ribaut,  who  had 
wished  to  establish  what  are  now  called  "ocean  lanes" — at 
least  so  far  as  to  keep  the  French  vessels  away  from  the 
Spaniards  by  following  a  more  northern  track.  Gosnold  land 
ed  at  Cape  Ann,  then  crossed  Massachusetts  Bay  to  Province- 
town,  and  built  a  shelter  on  the  Island  of  Cuttyhunk  (called 
by  him  Elizabeth  Island),  in  Buzzard's  Bay.  His  house  was 
fortified  with  palisades,  thatched  with  sedge,  and  furnished 
with  a  cellar,  which  has  been  identified  in  recent  times.  He 
saw  deer  on  the  island,  but  no  inhabitants ;  and  the  soil  was 
"  overgrown  with  wood  and  rubbish  " — the  latter  including  sas 
safras,  young  cherry-trees,  and  grape-vines.  Here  he  wintered, 
but  if  he  ever  meant  to  found  a  colony — which  is  now  doubted 
— it  failed  for  want  of  supplies,  and  his  vessel,  the  Concord, 
returned  with  all  on  board,  his  eight  seamen  and  twenty 
planters,  to  England.  They  arrived  there,  as  Gosnold  wrote 
to  his  father,  without  "  one  cake  of  bread,  nor  any  drink  but 
a  little  vinegar  left."  But  he  had  a  cargo  of  sassafras  root 
which  was  worth  more  than  vinegar  or  bread,  though  it  yielded 
little  profit  to  Gosnold,  since  it  was  confiscated  by  Raleigh  as 
being  sole  patentee  of  the  region  visited.  This  fragrant  shrub, 
then  greatly  prized  as  a  medicine,  drew  to  America  another  ex 
pedition,  following  after  Gosnold's,  and  headed  by  Martin  Pring. 


•"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  141 

He  sailed  the  next  year  (1603)  with  two  vessels  and  forty-four 
men,  not  aiming  at  colonization,  but  at  trade.  He  anchored 
either  at  Plymouth  or  Edgartown,  built  a  palisaded  fort  to 
protect  his  sassafras -hunters,  but  found  the  Indians  very  in 
convenient  neighbors,  and  returned  home.  Waymouth  came 
two  years  later,  and  sailed  sixty  miles  up  the  Kennebec  or 
Penobscot  —  it  is  not  yet  settled  which  —  and  pronounced  it 
"the  most  rich,  beautiful,  large,  and  secure  harboring  river  that 
the  world  affordeth."  But  he  did  not  stay  long,  and  except 
for  his  enthusiasm  over  the  country,  and  the  fact  that  he  car 
ried  home  five  Indians,  his  trip  counted  for  no  more  than 
Pring's.  Meanwhile  De  Monts  and  Champlain  were  busy  in 
exploring  on  the  part  of  the  French ;  and  Sir  Ferdinando 
Gorges  was  planning  one  more  fruitless  colony  for  the  English. 

Gorges  was  probably  a  kinsman  of  Raleigh ;  he  knew 
Waymouth,  and  took  •  charge  for  three  years  of  some  of  his 
Indian  captives.  With  Sir  John  Popham  he  secured  the  in 
corporation  of  two  colonies  —  to  be  called  the  First  and  the 
Second,  and  to  be  under  charge  of  the  Council  of  Virginia, 
appointed  by  the  crown.  The  First,  or  London  Colony,  was 
to  be  planted  in  "  South  Virginia,"  from  north  latitude  34°  to 
38°,  and  the  Second,  or  Plymouth  Colony,  was  to  be  planted 
in  "North  Virginia,"  between  41°  and  45°  north  latitude.  Nei 
ther  colony  was  to  extend  more  than  fifty  miles  inland,  and 
there  was  to  be  an  interval  of  a  hundred  miles  between  their 
nearest  settlements.  That  gap  of  a  hundred  miles  afterwards 
caused  a  great  deal  of  trouble. 

Three  ships  with  a  hundred  settlers  went  from  Plymouth, 
England,  in  1607,  reaching  the  mouth  of  the  Sagadahoc,  or 
Kennebec,  August  8th.  They  held  religious  services  accord 
ing  to  the  Church  of  England,  read  their  patent  publicly,  and 
proceeded  to  dig  wells,  build  houses,  and  erect  a  fort.  Mis 
fortune  pursued  them.  Nearly  half  their  number  went  back 
with  the  vessels.  The  winter  was  unusuallv  severe.  Their 


142 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


storehouse  was  burned;  their  president,  George  Popham,  died; 
their  patron   in   England,  Sir  John    Popham,  died   also ;  their 


are  the  Lilies  th&tJJiew 
hew  -thy  GrACC,  anciCflory,  Iryhter  lee  : 
dty  Tairc-Difcoueries  ttntL&owle,-  Overthrows^ 
Cf  Salvages, mucK,  ClrillizcL  ly 

thy  Spirit;antL  to  it  Glory 
c  wt'tfwut 


"admiral,"  Raleigh   Gilbert,  was    recalled  to    England   by   the 
death  of  his  brother.     In  the  spring  all  returned,  and  another 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  143 

colony  was  added  to  the  list  of  unsuccessful  attempts.  It  is 
useless  to  speculate  on  what  might  have  been  the  difference 
in  the  destiny  of  New  England  had  it  succeeded ;  it  failed, 
and  the  world  never  cares  very  much  for  failures.  The  con 
temporary  verdict  was  that  "  the  country  was  branded  by  the 
return  of  that  plantation  as  being  over -cold,  and,  in  respect 
of  that,  not  habitable  for  Englishmen."  But  the  fortunate  fact 
that  two  colonies  were  sent  out  together  made  the  year  1607 
the  beginning  of  successful  colonization  in  America,  after  all. 
The  enterprise  succeeded,  not  in  New  England,  then  called 
North  Virginia,  but  in  South  Virginia,  part  of  which  territory 
still  retains  the  name  of  the  Virgin  Queen.  It  succeeded 
not  under  the  high-sounding  name  of  Sir  Ferdinando  Gorges, 
but  under  the  more  plebeian  auspices  of  John  Smith. 

John  Smith  was  the  last  of  the  romantic  school  of  explor 
ers.  It  is  impossible  to  tell  who  wrote  all  his  numerous  books, 
or  where  to  draw  the  line  in  regard  to  his  innumerable  ad 
ventures.  We  shall  never  know  the  whole  truth  about  Poca- 
hontas  or  Powhatan.  No  matter;  he  was  the  ideal  sailor,  labor 
ing  to  be  accurate  in  all  that  relates  to  coasts  and  soundings, 
absolutely  credulous  as  to  all  the  wilder  aspects  of  enterprise 
in  a  new  world.  He  maintained  the  traditions  of  wonder;  he 
would  not  have  been  surprised  at  Job  Hartop's  merman,  or 
Ponce  de  Leon's  old  men  made  young,  or  Raleigh's  headless 
Indians,  or  Champlain's  Gougou.  The  flavor  of  all  his  narra 
tives  is  that  of  insatiable  and  joyous  adventure,  not  yet  shad 
owed  by  that  awful  romance  of  supernatural  terror  which  came 
in  with  the  Puritans. 

Yet  his  first  service  was  in  his  accuracy  of  description.  It 
is  a  singular  fact  pointed  out  by  Kohl,  that  while  the  sixteenth 
century  placed  upon  our  maps  with  much  truth  the  coasts  of 
Newfoundland,  Labrador,  and  Canada,  the  coasts  of  New  Eng 
land  and  New  York  were  unknown  till  the  beginning  of  the 
seventeenth.  When  Hudson  sailed  south  of  Cape  Cod  and 


144 


HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


entered   the   harbor  of  New  York,  he  was  justified   in   saying 
that  he   entered  "  an   unknown   sea."      If   the    shore    north    of 


P  O  WHATAN 


Cape  Cod  was  not  an  unknown  region,  it  was  due  largely  to 
Smith.  While  his  companions  were  plundering  or  kidnapping 
negroes,  at  the  time  he  first  visited  those  shores,  in  1614,  he 
was  drawing  "  a  map  from  point  to  point,  isle  to  isle,  and  har 
bor  to  harbor,  with  the  soundings,  sands,  rocks,  and  land 
marks."  He  first  called  the  region  New  England,  and  first 


AN  ENGLISH  NATION." 


f>c,ik*  art  Brcilsc  widitut  lut  $oldt  Within.  . 


MAP  OF  THE  NEW  ENGLAND   COAST,  FROM  CAPTAIN  JOHN   SMITH'S  "  HISTORIE 

OF   VIRGINIA." 

gave  the  names  of  Charles  River,  Plymouth,  Cape  Ann ;  while 
other  titles  which  he  bestowed  —  as  Boston,  Cambridge,  Hull 
-have  not  disappeared,  but  only  shifted  their  places.  He 
caused  thousands  of  his  maps  to  be  printed,  and  yet  com 
plained  he  might  as  well  have  tried  "to  cut  rocks  with  oyster 
shells  "  as  to  spread  among  others  his  interest  in  this  matter. 
Fifteen  years  after,  he  could  only  report  the  same  discourage 
ment.  "  The  coast  is  yet  still  but  as  a  coast  unknown  and 
undiscovered.  I  have  had  six  or  seven  plots  of  those  northern 
parts,  so  unlike  each  to  other  for  resemblance  of  the  country 
as  they  did  me  no  more  good  than  so  much  waste  paper." 

This  illustrates   Smith's   methods.     But  it  was   in  his  first 
expedition  to  Virginia  that  he  placed  himself  on  record  as  the 

10 


146  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

first  successful  colonizer  of  America.  At  the  time,  however, 
he  would  have  claimed  no  higher  title  than  "  Adventurer," 
that  being  the  name  by  which  the  members  of  the  London 
Company  were  known.  The  men  who  were  sent  out  on  this 
expedition  were  authorized  to  mine  for  the  precious  metals, 
to  coin  money,  and  to  collect  a  revenue  for  twenty -one  years 
from  all  vessels.  The  dream  of  wealth  had  been  transplanted 
from  Spain  to  England,  and  its  supposed  scene  of  enrichment 
from  Mexico  to  u  Virginia."  The  English  plays  of  the  period 
.show  this.  "  I  tell  thee,"  says  Seagull,  in  Marston's  play  of 
"Eastward,  Ho!"  written  in  1605,  "golde  is  more  plentifull 
there  than  copper  is  with  us ;  and  for  as  much  redde  copper 
as  I  can  bring  I'll  have  thrise  the  weight  in  gold.  Why,  man, 
all  theyre  dripping  pans  .  .  .  are  pure  gould,  and  all  the  chaines 
with  which  they  chaine  up  their  streets  are  massie  gold ;  and 
for  rubies  and  diamonds,  they  go  forth  in  Holydayes  and  gath 
er  'hem  by  the  seashore  to  hang  on  their  children's  coates  and 
stick  in  their  children's  caps."  And,  to  complete  the  picture, 
he  promises  uno  more  law  than  conscience,  and  not  too  much 
of  eyther." 

Such  were  the  hopes  with  which  the  three  ships  of  the 
Virginia  Company  of  London  sailed  from  the  Downs,  January 
i,  1607.  ^  was  a  modest  expedition,  but  it  carried  the  fort 
unes  of  the  "  English  Nation  "  on  board.  These  vessels  were 
the  Susan  Constant  (100  tons),  with  seventy -one  persons,  com 
manded  by  Captain  Christopher  Newport,  fleet  captain ;  the 
Godspeed  (40  tons),  Captain  Bartholomew  Gosnold,  with  fifty- 
two  persons;  and  the  Discovery,  Captain  John  Ratcliffe,  with 
twenty  persons.  There  were  thirty-nine  of  the  crew,  and  one 
hundred  and  five  planters,  more  than  half  classed  as  "gentle 
men,"  with  laborers,  tradesmen,  and  mechanics,  and  two  "  chi- 
rurgeons."  Sailing  by  the  southern  route  —  the  way  of  the 
West  Indies  —  they  reached  Chesapeake  Bay  on  the  night  of 
April  26th,  and  there  for  the  first  time  opened  a  sealed  box 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  147 

containing  the  orders  from  the  King.  This  box  designated 
as  councillors  the  three  sea-captains,  with  Edward  Maria 
Wingfield  (president),  John  Smith,  John  Martin,  and  John  Ken 
dall.  Smith,  however,  because  of  some  suspicion  of  mutinous 
bearing  on  the  voyage,  was  excluded  from  office  until  June  loth. 
It  is  possible  that  something  of  personal  feeling  may  have 
•entered  into  Smith's  low  opinion  of  these  first  colonists.  He 
says  of  them,  in  his  "  Generall  Historic :" 

"  Being  for  most  part  of  such  tender  educations,  and  small  experience  in 
Martiall  accidents,  because  they  found  not  English  Cities,  nor  such  fair  houses, 
•downe  pillowes,  tavernes,  and  ale-houses  in  euery  breathing  place,  neither  such 
plentie  of  gold  and  silver  and  dissolute  libertie  as  they  expected,  had  little  or 
no  care  of  anything  but  to  pamper  their  bellies,  to  fly  away  with  our  Pinnaces, 
or  procure  their  meanes  to  returne  for  England.  For  the  Country  was  to  them 
a  misery,  a  ruine,  a  death,  a  hell,  and  their  reports  here  and  their  actions  there 
.according." 

They  planted  a  cross  at  Fort  Henry,  naming  it  for  the 
Prince  of  Wales,  and  they  named  the  opposite  cape  for  his 
brother,  the  Duke  of  York,  afterwards  Charles  I.  The  next 
day  they  named  another  spot  Point  Comfort.  Ascending  the 
Powhatan  River,  called  by  them  the  James,  they  landed  at  a 
peninsula  about  fifty  miles  from  the  mouth,  and  resolved  to 
build  their  town  there.  They  went  to  work,  sending  Smith 
and  others  farther  up  the  river  to  explore,  and  repelling  the 
first  Indian  attack  during  their  absence.  In  June  Newport 
.sailed  for  England,  leaving  three  months'  provisions  for  the 
colonists.  Again  the  experiment  was  to  be  tried ;  again  Eng 
lishmen  found  themselves  alone  in  the  New  World.  Captain 
John  Smith,  always  graphic,  has  left  a  vivid  picture  of  the 
discomforts  of  that  early  time : 

"  When  I  first  went  to  Virginia,  I  well  remember,  wee  did  hang  an  awning 
(which  is  an  old  saile)  to  three  or  foure  trees  to  shadow  us  from  the  Sunne, 
our  walls  were  rales  of  wood,  our  seats  unhewed  trees,  till  we  cut  plankes,  our 
Pulpit  a  bar  of  wood  nailed  to  two  neighboring  trees,  in  foule  weather  we 
shifted  into  an  old  rotten  tent,  for  we  had  few  better,  and  this  came  by  the  way 
•of  adventure  for  new  ;  this  was  our  Church,  till  wee  built  a  homely  thing  like 


148 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


a  barne,  set  upon  Cratchets,  covered  with  rafts,  sedge,  and  earth,  so  was  also 
the  walls  :  the  best  of  our  houses  of  the  like  curiosity,  but  the  most  part  farre 
much  worse  workmanship,  that  could  neither  well  defend  wind  nor  raine,  yet 
wee  had  daily  Common  Prayer  morning  and  evening,  every  Sunday  two  Ser 
mons,  and  every  three  moneths  the  holy  Communion,  till  our  Minister  died, 
but  our  Prayers  daily,  with  an  Homily  on  Sundaies  we  continued  two  or  three 
yeares  after  till  more  Preachers  came,  and  surely  God  did  most  mercifully  heare 
us,  till  the  continuall  inundations  of  mistaking  directions,  factions,  and  num 
bers  of  unprovided  Libertines  neere  consumed  us  all,  as  the  Israelites  in  the 
wildernesse." 

The  place  was   unhealthy  ;    they  found   no  gold  ;    the   sav 
ages  were  hostile  ;  by  September  one-half  of  their  own  number 

had  died,  including  Gos- 
nold,  and  their  provisions 
were  almost  exhausted. 
The  council  was  reduced 
to  three  —  Ratcliffe,  Smith, 
and  Martin.  Later  still 
their  settlement  was  burn 
ed,  and  their  food  reduced 
to  meal  and  water  ;  the 
intrepid  leadership  of 
Smith  alone  saved  them  ; 
and  for  years  the  colony 
struggled,  as  did  the  Plym 
outh  colony  a  dozen  years 
later,  for  mere  existence. 
Its  materials  from  the  be 
ginning  were  strangely  put 
together  —  one  mason,  one 
blacksmith,  four  carpen 
ters,  fifty  -two  gentlemen, 

,          n         ,  i        T>I         <<  £ 

^    *    ^^  !         The    "  firSt 

supply"   in    1608    brought 
one    hundred    and   twenty 
more,  but  not  in  much  better  combination  —  thirty-three  gentle- 


MAP     OF     JAMESTOWN      SETTLEMENT.     FROM 
CAPTAIN     JOHN     SMITH'S     "  HISTORIE     OF 

VIRGINIA." 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  149 

men,  twenty-one  laborers,  six  tailors,  with  apothecaries,  perfum 
ers,  and  goldsmiths,  but  still  only  one  mechanic  of  the  right 
sort.  The  "second  supply,"  in  the  same  year,  brought  seventy 
persons,  including  "  eight  Dutchmen  and  Poles,"  and,  best  of 
all,  two  women  —  Mistress  Forrest  and  Anne  Burras  her  maid 
—joined  the  company ;  and  soon  after,  the  maid  was  married 
to  John  Laydon,  "which  was  the  first  marriage,"  Smith  tri 
umphantly  says,  "we  had  in  Virginia."  Smith  had  by  this 
time  become  President  of  the  Council,  and  was  at  last  its  only 
member.  They  had  received  supplies  from  England,  but  the 
continuance  of  these  was  very  uncertain.  Newport  on  his 
return  trip  had  foolishly  pledged  himself  not  to  return  without 
a  lump  of  gold,  the  discovery  of  a  passage  to  the  North  Sea, 
some  of  the  settlers  of  the  lost  colony,  or  a  freight  worth 
^"2000.  Unless  this  pledge  was  fulfilled,  the  colony  was  to  be 
abandoned  to  its  own  resources ;  and  fulfilled  it  never  was. 

Early  in  October,  1609,  Smith  sailed  for  England,  leaving 
nearly  five  hundred  settlers,  with  horses,  cattle,  cannon,  fishing 
nets,  and  provisions.  He  never  returned,  though  he  made  a 
successful  voyage  to  New  England.  He  apparently  went  away 
under  a  cloud,  but  with  him  went  the  fortunes  of  the  colony. 
There  followed  a  period  known  as  "  the  starving  time,"  which 
ended  in  the  abandonment  of  the  settlement,  with  its  fifty  or 
sixty  houses  and  its  defence  of  palisades.  The  colonists  were 
met  as  they  descended  the  river,  in  April,  1610,  by  Lord  Del 
aware  (or  De  la  Warr)  as  he  ascended  with  another  party  of 
settlers ;  and  thenceforward  the  Virginia  settlement  was  se 
cure.  Yet  it  did  not  grow  strong;  it  was  languishing  in  1618, 
and  it  had  an  accession  of  doubtful  benefit  in  1619,  when  we 
read  in  Smith's  "  Generall  Historic,"  as  the  statement  of  John 
Rolfe,  "  About  the  last  of  August  came  in  a  Dutch  man-of- 
warre,  and  sold  us  twenty  Negars."  In  1621  came  a  more 
desirable  accession,  through  the  shipment  by  the  company  of 
"  respectable  young  women  "  for  wives  of  those  colonists  who 


150 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


ARRIVAL   OF  THE  YOUNG  WOMEN   AT  JAMESTOWN. 


would  pay  the  cost  of  transportation — at  first  one  hundred 
and  twenty  pounds  of  tobacco,  afterwards  one  hundred  and 
fifty.  In  July,  1620,  the  colony  was  four  thousand  strong,  and 
shipped  to  England  forty  thousand  pounds  of  tobacco.  This 
was  raised  with  the  aid  of  many  bound  apprentices — boys  and 
girls  picked  up  in  the  streets  of  London  and  sent  out — and 
of  many  "  disorderly  persons  "  sent  by  order  of  the  King.  But 
in  the  year  1624  only  1275  colonists  were  left  in  Virginia. 

The  colony  would  have  been  more  prosperous,  Captain 
John  Smith  thought,  without  the  tobacco.  "  Out  of  the  rel- 
icks  of  our  miseries,"  he  says,  "  time  and  experience  had 
brought  that  country  to  a  great  happinesse,  had  they  not  so 


"  AN  ENGLISH  NA  TION."  1 5 1 

much  doted  on  their  tobacco,  on  whose  firmest  foundations 
there  is  small  stability,  there  being  so  many  good  commodi 
ties  beside."  But  their  chief  trouble,  as  he  wrote  from  Lon 
don  in  1631  —  the  last  year  of  his  life  —  was  always  in  the 
uncertain  sway  of  the  Virginia  Company  in  London :  "  Their 
purses  and  lives  were  subject  to  some  few  here  in  London, 
who  were  never  there,  that  consumed  all  in  Arguments,  Proj 
ects,  Conclusions,  altering  everything  yearely,  as  they  altered 
opinions,  till  they  had  consumed  more  than  ,£200,000  and 
neere  8000  men's  lives.'' 

Another  voyager,  also  English,  but  in  Dutch  employ,  follow 
ing  Smith  across  the  ocean,  rivalled  his  fame.  It  was  a  won 
drous  period,  certainly,  when  a  continent  lay  unexplored  before 
civilized  men,  and  a  daring  navigator  could  at  a  single  voyage 
add  to  the  map  a  whole  mighty  river,  whereas  now  it  some 
times  takes  many  lives  to  establish  a  few  additional  facts  as 
to  the  minor  sources  of  some  well-known  stream.  The  name 
of  Henry  Hudson  is  as  indelibly  associated  with  the  river  he 
discovered  as  is  the  Rhine  with  the  feudal  castles  that  make 
its  summits  picturesque.  The  difference  is  that  after  the  last 
stone  of  the  last  ruin  has  crumbled,  the  name  of  the  great 
navigator  will  be  as  permanent  as  now.  While  Hudson  was. 
exploring  what  he  called  "  The  Great  North  River  of  New 
Netherlands,"  Champlain  was  within  a  few  miles  of  him,  on 
the  lake  that  was  to  bear  his  name.  Both  he  and  Hudson 
were  fortunate  enough  to  have  names  sufficiently  character 
istic  to  keep  their  places  on  the  map,  while  "  Smith's  Isles " 
soon  yielded  to  the  yet  vaguer  appellation  of  the  "  Isles  of 
Shoals." 

It  has  been  well  pointed  out  in  the  most  recent  sketch 
of  the  Dutch  in  America  —  that  of  Mr.  Fernow,  in  the  "Nar 
rative  and  Critical  History  of  America,"  edited  by  Justin 
Winsor  —  that  the  early  Dutch  explorations  did  not  proceed 
from  the  love  of  discovery  or  of  gold -seeking,  but  were  an 


152  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

incident  of  European  wars.  Carlyle  says  that  the  Dutch 
might  have  kept  on  making  butter  and  cheese  forever  had 
not  the  Spaniards  hurried  them  into  a  war  in  order  to  make 
them  believe  in  St.  Ignatius.  The  Spaniards,  he  says,  "  never 
made  them  believe  in  him,  but  succeeded  in  breaking  their 
own  vertebral  column,  and  raising  the  Dutch  into  a  great 
nation."  The  Dutch  West  India  Company  was,  according  to 
Mr.  Fernow,  a  political  movement,  planned  in  1606,  and  re 
vived  in  1618 — a  scheme  to  destroy  the  results  of  Spanish 
conquest  in  America,  under  cover  of  finding  a  passage  to 
Cathay. 

Henry  Hudson  sailed  in  the  employ  of  this  company,  in 
the  vessel  Half-Moon,  April  4,  1609.  He  undertook  the  search 
for  a  north-west  passage  —  to  which  there  was  an  opening 
north  of  Virginia,  as  his  friend,  Captain  John  Smith,  had 
assured  him.  Sailing  up  the  river  which  now  bears  his 
name,  he  found  no  passage,  but  brought  back  reports  of  fur- 
bearing  animals,  which  revived  the  Dutch  Company,  and  se 
cured  for  it  a  charter,  granted  in  1621.  Before  this  Adrian 
Block  had  built  a  log  fort  on  Manhattan  Island,  in  1614, 
and  had  called  the  settlement  New  Amsterdam  ;  another 
fort  was  built  near  what  is  now  Albany ;  another  in  what 
is  now  Gloucester,  New  Jersey;  and  in  1626  Peter  Minuit 
bought  the  whole  of  Manhattan  Island  from  the  Indians. 
All  these  settlements  were  supposed  to  be  within  the  hun 
dred  miles  which  were  to  separate  the  North  and  South  Vir 
ginia  settlements.  The  South  Virginia  colonists  tried  to  drive 
out  the  Dutch  in  1613,  and  Governor  Bradford,  in  Plymouth, 
remonstrated  in  1627  against  the  intruders,  but  they  remain 
ed.  The  secret  belief  of  the  Dutch  was  that,  after  all,  the 
English  had  secured  only  the  two  shells,  while  they  had  the 
oyster.  For  years  the  colony  was  rather  like  a  commercial- 
enterprise  than  like  anything  of  larger  expectations  ;  but 
after  a  time,  under  the  teaching  of  experience,  a  more  lib- 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  153 

\ 

eral  policy  was  practised,  and  settlers  came  from  many  sources 
—dissatisfied  religionists  from  New  England,  escaped  servants 
from  Virginia,  and  rich  and  poor  from  Holland.  In  1643 
there  were  eighteen  different  nationalities  represented  in  New 
Amsterdam. 

The  English  had  thus  obtained  a  foothold  in  Virginia,  and 
the  Dutch  had  established  themselves  in  New  Netherlands, 
both  being  led  by  the  love  of  discovery,  or  of  trade,  or  of  re 
venge  against  the  Spaniards.  All  efforts  had  thus  far  failed 
to  build  a  colony  in  New  England.  Captain  Smith  wrote  that 
he  was  not  so  foolish  as  to  suppose  that  anything  but  the 
prospect  of  great  gain  would  induce  people  to  settle  in  such 
a  place.-  He  was  right ;  it  was  done  with  the  prospect  of 
great  gain,  but  of  a  kind  of  which  he  had  not  dreamed.  It 
is  partly  this  new  motive  and  partly  the  pivotal  part  it  played 
in  the  colonization  of  America  that  has  always  given  to  the 
little  colony  of  Plymouth  an  historic  importance  out  of  all  pro 
portion  to  its  numbers,  its  wealth,  or  even  its  permanence  of 
separate  life. 

The  Pilgrims,  as  they  have  always  been  called,  had  sep 
arated  for  conscience'  sake  from  the  Church  of  England,  had 
removed  from  England  to  Holland,  and  had  dwelt  there  in 
that  "  common  harbor  of  all  heresies/'  as  Bishop  Hall  called 
it,  there  increasing  to  the  number  of  five  hundred.  The 
Dutch  magistrates  said,  "  These  English  have  lived  among  us 
now  these  twelve  years,  and  yet  we  have  never  had  any  suit 
or  accusation  against  them."  But  it  seemed  likely  that  the 
wars  between  Spain  and  Holland  would  be  renewed,  making 
their  place  of  refuge  unsafe;  and  the  children  of  the  Pilgrims 
were  growing  up,  whom  their  parents  wished  to  hear  speaking 
English  rather  than  Dutch ;  and  they  desired  also  to  do  some 
thing  "for  the  propagating  and  advancing  of  the  Gospel  of 
Christ  in  the  remote  parts  of  the  world."  So  a  hundred  of 
their  younger  and  stronger  men  and  women  were  selected  to 


154  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

go  to  America,  and  a  portion  of  them  sailed  from  Delft  Haven 
in  July,  1620;  their  pious  minister,  John  Robinson,  invoking  a 
blessing  upon  their  departure,  and  warning  them,  "  The  Lord 
hath  more  truth  yet  to  seek  out  of  His  holy  Word."  Of  their 
two  ships,  the  Mayflower  alone  completed  her  voyage,  and  after 
touching  at  three  English  ports  she  still  had  a  voyage  of 
sixty-three  days.  The  Speedwell  put  back  in  consequence  of 
alarms  needlessly  spread  by  her  captain,  who  had  already  re 
pented  of  his  promise  to  remain  a  year  with  the  colony,  and 
took  this  cowardly  way  to  obtain  relief  from  that  pledge. 

On  the  eastern  coast  of  Massachusetts  there  is  a  cape 
which  stretches  far  into  the  sea,  "shaped  like  a  sickle","  as 
Captain  John  Smith  said,  but  named  less  poetically  "  Cape 
Cod  "  by  Gosnold,  because  of  the  multitudes  of  fish  with  which 
he  had  "  pestered  "  his  vessel  there.  If  on  the  gth  of  Novem 
ber  (Old  Style),  in  1620,  any  stray  Indian  had  been  looking 
from  the  bluff  where  Highland  Light  now  stands,  he  would 
have  seen  a  lonely  and  weather-beaten  vessel  creeping  slowly 
towards  the  land.  It  was  the  Mayflower,  now  more  than  two 
months  at  sea.  She  had  met  with  such  storms  and  had  grown 
so  leaky  that  it  had  been  seriously  proposed  by  the  sailors, 
when  half  across  the  Atlantic,  to  return.  But  for  the  fact 
that  some  passenger  had  happened  to  bring  a  great  iron  screw 
with  his  baggage,  it  is  doubtful  if  the  little  vessel  could  have 
made  the  passage.  As  it  was,  she  was  heavy  and  slow,  and 
the  passengers  were  full  of  joy  when  they  saw  Cape  Cod. 
They  very  well  knew  what  land  it  was,  for  the  mates  of  the 
vessel  had  been  there  twice  before,  while  one  passenger  had 
actually  been  as  far  as  Virginia.  But  they  did  not  mean  to 
remain  at  Cape  Cod,  or  indeed  in  New  England  at  all.  Ever 
since  the  failure  of  the  Popham  colony  in  Maine,  twelve  years 
before,  New  England  had  been  thought  to  be  a  "cold,  barren, 
mountainous,  rocky  desert,"  and  had  been  abandoned  as  "  un 
inhabitable  by  Englishmen."  So  the  Mayflower  did  not  at 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION r  155 

first  anchor  at  Cape  Cod,  but  tacked  and  sailed  southward  for 
half  a  day,  meaning  to  reach  the  Hudson  River.  Then  she 
got  among  dangerous  shoals  and  currents,  the  wind  moreover 
being  contrary;  and  the  captain,  anxious  for  his  vessel,  and  in 
a  hurry  to  land  his  passengers,  put  about  again  and  made 
Cape  Cod  Harbor. 

"  But  here  I  cannot  but  stay  and  make  a  pause,"  says  the 
old  writer  who  first  describes  this  voyage,  "  and  stand  half 
amazed  at  these  poor  people's  condition ;  and  so  I  think  will 
the  reader  too,  when  he  well  considers  the  same.  For  having 
passed  through  many  troubles,  both  before  and  upon  the  voy 
age,  as  aforesaid,  they  had  now  no  friends  to  welcome  them, 
nor  inns  to  entertain  and  refresh  them,  no  houses,  much  less 
towns,  to  repair  unto."  Before  them  lay  an  unknown  wilder 
ness.  The  nearest  English  settlement  was  five  hundred  miles 
away.  They  had  expected  to  arrive  in  September,  and  it  was 
November;  they  had  expected  to  reach  the  Hudson  River, 
and  it  was  Cape  Cod.  "  Summer  being  done,"  says  the  same 
writer  —  Bradford — "all  things  stand  for  them  to  look  upon 
with  a  weather-beaten  face ;  and  the  \vhole  country  being  full 
of  woods  and  thickets,  represented  a  wild  and  savage  hue. 
If  they  looked  behind  them  there  was  the  mighty  ocean  which 
they  had  passed,  and  was  now  a  main  bar  and  gulf  to  separate 
them  from  all  the  civil  parts  of  the  world."  To  be  sure,  they 
had  still  a  ship ;  but  the  captain  warned  them  daily  that  they 
must  look  out  for  a  place  to  found  their  colony ;  that  he  could 
wait  but  little  longer;  that  the  provisions  were  diminishing 
every  day,  and  he  must  and  would  keep  enough  for  himself 
and  crew  to  use  on  their  return.  Some  of  the  crew  were 
even  less  friendly  in  what  they  said,  for  some  of  these  were 
heard  to  threaten  that  unless  the  place  for  their  new  colony 
were  soon  found,  "  they  would  turn  them  and  their  goods  on 
shore  and  leave  them." 

Such  was  the  position  of  the  Pilgrims  when  the  Mayflower 


156  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

lay  at  anchor  in  Cape  Cod  Harbor.  The  first  thing  to  be 
done  was  to  select  a  place  for  their  settlement.  This,  how 
ever,  could  not  be  done  till  the  shallop,  or  sail-boat,  was  ready ; 
and  it  would  take  several  days,  as  they  found.  So  they  went 
to  work  on  this,  and  meanwhile,  for  the  sake  of  a  mutual  un 
derstanding  among  themselves,  this  agreement  was  drawn  up 
and  signed  by  all  the  men  on  board. 

"  In  the  name  of  God,  Amen.  We,  whose  names  are  underwritten,  the 
loyall  subiects  of  our  dread  soveraigne  lord,  King  James,  by  the  grace  of  God, 
of  Great  Britaine,  France,  and  Ireland  King,  Defender  of  the  Faith,  etc.,  hav 
ing  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advancement  of  the  Christian- 
faith,  and  honour  of  our  King  and  country,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  colony 
in  the  northerne  parts  of  Virginia,  doe,  by  these  presents,  Solemnly  and  mutu 
ally,  in  the  presence  of  God  and  one  of  another,  covenant  and  combine  our 
selves  together  into  a  civill  body  politike,  for  our  better  ordering  and  preser 
vation,  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid  ;  and  by  vertue  hereof  to  enact, 
constitute,  and  frame  such  iust  and  equal  lawes,  ordinances,  acts,  constitutions, 
offices,  from  time  to  time,  as  shall  be  thought  most  meet  and  convenient  for 
the  generall  good  of  the  Colony;  vnto  which  we  promise  all  due  submission 
and  obedience.  In  witnesse  whereof  we  haue  hereunto  subscribed  our  names. 
Cape  Cod,  n  of  November,  in  the  year  of  the  raigne  of  our  soveraigne  lord 
King  lames,  of  England,  France,  and  Ireland  18,  and  of  Scotland  54.  Anno 
Domini  1620." 

Here  was  the  "social  compact"  in  good  earnest  —  a  thing 
which  philosophers  have  claimed  to  be  implied  in  all  human 
government,  but  which  has  rarely  been  put  in  a  shape  so  un 
equivocal.  Robinson's  letter  of  advice  to  the  company  had 
recognized  before  they  left  Holland  that  they  were  "  to  be 
come  a  body -politic,"  using  among  themselves  civil  govern 
ment,  and  choosing  their  own  rulers.  As  with  most  persons 
who  write  important  documents,  their  work  seemed  less  im 
posing  to  themselves  than  it  has  since  appeared  to  others. 
They  thought  of  discipline  rather  than  of  philosophy ;  they 
had  secured  a  good  working  organization,  and  it  was  not  till 
long  after  that  the  act  was  discovered  to  have  been  "  the 
birth  of  popular  constitutional  liberty."  Such  as  it  was,  it  was 
signed  by  forty -one  men,  mostly  heads  of  families.  Against 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  157 

•each  name  was  placed  the  number  represented  by  him,  mak 
ing  a  total  of  one  hundred  and  one  persons,  though  accurate 
ly  revised  estimates  give  one  more. 

This  being  signed,  the  people  were  eager  to  go  on  shore 
and  examine  the  new  country,  even  by  venturing  a  little  way. 
So  a  party  landed  for  fuel,  a  portion  of  them  being  armed ; 
they  saw  neither  person  nor  house,  but  brought  home  a  boat 
load  of  juniper  boughs,  "  which  smelled  very  sweet  and  strong," 
and  which  became  a  frequent  fuel  with  them.  Then  the 
women  went  ashore  under  guard  the  next  Monday  to  do  their 
washing,  and  we  may  well  suppose  that  some  of  the  twenty- 
eight  children  begged  hard  to  go  also,  and  offered  much  des 
ultory  aid  in  bringing  water,  while  the  men  guarded  and  the 
women  scrubbed.  The  more  they  knew  of  the  land,  the  more 
they  wished  to  know,  and  at  last  it  was  agreed  that  Captain 
Miles  Standish  and  sixteen  men,  "  with  every  man  his  musket, 
.sword,  and  corselet,"  should  be  sent  along  the  cape  to  explore. 
The  muskets  were  matchlocks,  and  the  corselet  was  a  coat  of 
mail,  a  heavy  garment  to  be  worn  amid  tangled  woods  and 
over  weary  sands. 

The  journal  kept  by  this  first  party  has  been  preserved. 
They  found  walnuts,  strawberries,  and  vines,  and  came  to  some 
springs,  where  they  sat  down  and  drank  their  first  New  Eng~ 
land  water,  as  one  of  them  says,  "  with  as  much  delight  as  ever 
we  drunk  drink  in  all  our  lives."  They  saw  no  Indians,  but 
found  their  houses  and  graves ;  they  found  also  a  basket  hold 
ing  three  or  four  bushels  of  Indian  corn  of  yellow,  red,  and 
blue,  such  as  still  grows  in  Cape  Cod.  This  they  took  with 
them  on  their  return,  meaning  to  pay  for  it,  which  they  after 
wards  did.  Then  they  returned,  and  a  few  days  after  another 
party,  twice  as  large,  and  including  the  captain  of  the  May- 
flower,  set  off  in  the  shallop  to  make  further  explorations. 
All  their  adventures  are  preserved  to  us  in  the  most  graphic 
way  by  contemporary  narratives.  Then  a  third  party  of  eight- 


158  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

een  went  out,  including  Carver,  Standish,  Bradford,  and  other 
leading  men.  They  were  attacked  by  Indians ;  they  lost  their 
rudder  and  their  mast ;  they  landed  at  last  on  Clark's  Island, 
kept  the  Sabbath  there,  and  on  the  nth  December,  Old  Style 
— commonly  reckoned,  but  not  quite  accurately,  as  correspond 
ing  to  the  22d  of  December,  New  Style — they  made  their  first 
landing  on  Plymouth  Rock.  This  place  being  approved,  they 
returned  to  the  Mayflower,  and  the  vessel  came  into  harbor 
five  days  later. 

There  they  spent  the  winter  —  their  first  experience  of  a 
New  England  winter !  They  were  ill  housed,  ill  fed ;  part  of 
them  remained  for  several  months  on  board  the  ship ;  one-half 
of  them  died  during  the  first  winter  of  scurvy  and  other  dis 
eases.  At  times,  according  to  the  diary  of  the  heroic  Brad 
ford,  there  were  but  six  or  seven  sound  persons  who  could 
tend  upon  the  sick  and  dying,  "fetched  them  wood,  made 
them  fires,  dressed  them  meat,  made  their  beds,  washed  their 
loathsome  clothes,  clothed  and  unclothed  them,"  two  of  these 
nurses  being  their  spiritual  and  military  leaders,  Elder  Brew- 
ster  and  Captain  Miles  Standish.  The  New  Plymouth  Col 
ony  never  grew  to  be  a  strong  one ;  its  later  history  is  merged 
in  that  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony,  to  which  it  led ;  but 
its  success  may  be  said  to  have  been  the  turning-point  in  the 
existence  of  Raleigh's  "  English  nation."  The  situation  is 
thus  briefly  stated  by  the  ablest  historian  who  wrote  in  this 
continent  before  the  Revolution,  Governor  Hutchinson : 

"These  were  the  founders  of  the  colony  of  Plymouth.  The  settlement 
of  this  colony  occasioned  the  settlement  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  which  was  the 
source  of  all  the  other  colonies  of  New  England.  Virginia  was  in  a  dying 
state,  and  seemed  to  revive  and  flourish  from  the  example  of  New  England. 
I  am  not  preserving  from  oblivion  the  names  of  heroes  whose  chief  merit  is 
the  overthrow  of  cities,  provinces,  and  empires,  but  the  names  of  the  found 
ers  of  a  flourishing  town  and  colony,  if  not  of  the  whole  British  empire  in 
America." 

In  September,  1628,  there  came  sailing  into  the  harbor  of 


ENGLISH  NATION:' 


161 


Naumkeag,  afterwards  called  Salem,  a  ship  bearing  John  En- 
dicott,  one  of  the  six  patentees  of  the  "  Dorchester  Company," 
afterwards  enlarged  into  the  "  Governor  and  Company  of  Mas- 


JOHN    ENDICOTT. 


sachusetts  Bay."  Endicott  had  been  appointed  governor,  and 
found  on  shore  only  a  few  settlers,  Roger  Conant  and  others, 
part  of  them  strays  from  Plymouth,  who  were  quite  disposed  to 
be  impatient  of  his  authority.  There  remains  no  record  of  his 

ii 


1 62  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

voyage,  but  an  ample  record  of  that  of  his  successor  in  the 
emigration,  Rev.  Francis  Higginson,  who  came  as  the  spiritual 
leader — with  his  colleague  Skelton  —  of  the  first  large  party 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  Colony.  They  came  in  summer 
(1629),  and  all  their  early  impressions  were  in  poetic  contrast 
to  the  stern  landing  of  the  Pilgrims.  Francis  Higginson  says, 
in  his  journal  as  preserved  in  Hutchinson's  Collection  : 

"  By  noon  we  were  within  three  leagues  of  Cape  Ann  ;  and  as  we  sailed 
along  the  coasts  we  saw  every  hill  and  dale  and  every  island  full  of  gay  woods 
and  high  trees.  The  nearer  we  came  to  the  shore  the  more  flowers  in  abun 
dance,  sometimes  scattered  abroad,  sometimes  joined  in  sheets  nine  or  ten 
yards  long,  which  we  supposed  to  be  brought  from  the  low  meadows  by  the 
tide.  Now  what  with  fine  woods  and  green  trees  by  land,  and  these  yellow 
flowers  painting  the  sea,  made  us  all  desirous  to  see  our  new  paradise  of  New 
England,  whence  we  saw  such  forerunning  signals  of  fertility  afar  off." 

There  came  in  this  expedition  five  (or  possibly  six)  ships, 
of  which  the  Mayflower  was  one.  They  brought  two  hundred 
persons ;  whereas  only  some  forty  had  arrived  with  Endicott ; 
in  the  following  year  eight  hundred  came  with  Winthrop,  who, 
being  governor  of  the  company  itself,  superseded  all  other 
authorities.  It  was  the  most  powerful  body  of  colonists  that 
had  yet  reached  America.  Its  members  were  by  no  means 
limited  to  Salem,  nor  did  this  long  remain  the  centre  of  the 
colony.  Charlestown  was  settled  in  1629,  and  Dorchester, 
Roxbury,  Boston,  Medford,  Watertown,  and  Cambridge  in  1630. 

The  company  itself  was  transplanted  bodily  from  England. 
It  was  an  organized  government  under  a  royal  charter;  the 
freemen  were  to  meet  four  times  a  year  and  choose  a  gov 
ernor,  deputy  -  governor,  and  eighteen  assistants,  who  were  to 
meet  once  a  month,  and  exercise  all  the  functions  of  a  State. 
As  Mr.  Lodge  has  tersely  said,  "  It  was  the  migration  of  a 
people,  not  the  mere  setting  forth  of  colonists  and  adventur 
ers."  Considered  as  a  colony,  it  was  far  larger  and  richer 
than  that  at  Plymouth  ;  it  had  chosen  a  more  favorable  situa- 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION:'  163 

tion,  and  it  encountered  less  of  hardship,  though  it  had  quite 
enough.  Its  leaders  had  not  expected,  in  advance,  to  break 
with  the  Church  of  England,  as  had  been  done  by  the  "  Sep 
aratists  "  at  Plymouth.  "  We  will  not  say,''  said  Francis  Hig- 
ginson,  on  looking  back  to  the  receding  shores  of  England — 


JOHN    WINTHROP. 

"  we  will  not  say,  as  the  Separatists  were  wont  to  say  at  their 
leaving  of  England,  '  Farewell,  Babylon  !  farewell,  Rome !'  but 
we  will  say,  '  Farewell,  dear  England  !  farewell,  the  Church  of 
God  in  England,  and  all  the  Christian  friends  there.'  .  .  .  We 
go  to  practise  the  positive  part  of  Church  reformation,  and  to 
propagate  the  Gospel  in  America." 

Yet,  when    once    established    on    this    soil,  there    was    not 


1 64  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

much  difference  in  degree  of  independence  between  the  two 
colonies.  Indeed  Endicott,  when  he  sent  back  two  turbulent 
Churchmen  to  England, — or  when  he  defaced  the  cross,  then 
deemed  idolatrous,  upon  the  English  flag, —  or  when  he  sup 
pressed  Morton  and  his  roisterers  at  Merry  Mount, — went  far 
ther  in  the  assertion  of  separate  power  than  the  milder  au 
thorities  of  Plymouth  Colony  ever  went.  Both  colonies  aimed 
at  religious  reformation.  Neither  colony  professed  religious 
toleration,  though  the  Plymouth  colony  sometimes  practised 
it.  Rhode  Island,  on  its  establishment  by  Roger  Williams, 
both  professed  and  practised  it ;  and  though  his  banishment 
from  Massachusetts  was  not  on  religious  grounds  alone,  but 
partly  from  his  contentious  spirit  in  other  \vays,  yet  it  re 
sulted  in  good  to  the  world,  at  last,  through  his  high  concep 
tions  of  religious  liberty.  In  the  New  Hampshire  settlements, 
which  were  formed  as  early  as  1623,  there  was  less  of  strict 
ness  in  religion,  and  perhaps  less  of  religion ;  nor  was  there 
ever  any  great  rigidity  of  doctrine  or  practice  in  the  few  scat 
tered  villages  of  Maine.  The  two  Connecticut  colonies — Con 
necticut  and  New  Haven — being  framed  at  first  by  the  direct 
emigration  of  whole  religious  societies,  might  have  been  sup 
posed  to  carry  some  severity  with  them  into  their  banishment; 
but  they  seemed  to  leave  it  behind,  and  were  not  sterner  at 
the  outset  than  the  men  of  the  other  early  settlements,  even 
those  of  Virginia.  What  changes  came  over  this  type  of  man 
hood  in  the  second  generation,  in  the  banishment  of  a  colony 
and  the  asceticism  of  a  life  too  restricted,  we  shall  see.  But 
these  New  England  men  were,  at  the  outset,  of  as  high  a 
mould  as  ever  settled  a  State.  "  God  sifted  a  whole  nation," 
said  Stoughton,  "  that  He  might  send  choice  grain  over  into 
this  wilderness."  Between  the  years  1629  and  1639,  twenty 
thousand  Puritans  came  to  America;  it  was  not  a  mere  col 
onization,  it  was  the  transfer  of  a  people. 

Thus  were  four  colonies  established  on  the  North  Atlantic 


"AN  ENGLISH  NATION."  165 

coast  before  the  year  1630,  in  the  vast  region  once  called 
Virginia.  Three  of  them  were  English  at  the  beginning- 
Virginia,  New  Plymouth,  and  Massachusetts  Bay  —  and  the 
other  was  destined  to  become  such,  changing  its  name  from 
New  Netherland  to  New  York.  These  may  be  called  the 
pioneer  colonies;  and  if  we  extend  our  view  to  the  year  1650, 
we  take  in  three  other  colonies,  Connecticut,  Rhode  Island, 
New  Haven  —  which  had  gone  forth  from  these  —  while  two 
independent  colonies,  one  English  and  one  Swedish,  had  made 
separate  settlements  in  Maryland  and  Delaware ;  thus  making 
nine  in  all,  of  which  seven  were  English. 

The  men  of  the  Maryland  settlement  also  called  them 
selves,  like  those  of  Plymouth,  "  Pilgrims,"  but  the  name  had 
not  come  to  them  by  such  arduous  experience,  and  it  has  not 
attached  itself  to  their  descendants.  The  Roman  Catholics 
and  others  who  came  to  "  Mary's  Land  "  in  the  Ark  and  the 
Dove,  in  March,  1634,  under  Leonard  Calvert,  named  their  first 
settlement  St.  Mary's,  in  honor  of  Queen  Henrietta  Maria,  and 
they  called  themselves  "  the  Pilgrims  of  St.  Mary's."  The 
emigration  was  made  up  very  differently  from  those  which 
John  Smith  recorded  in  Virginia,  for  it  consisted  of  but  twen 
ty  "  gentlemen  "  and  three  hundred  laboring  men.  They  came 
under  a  charter  granted  to  George  Calvert,  Lord  Baltimore, 
who  had  for  many  years  been  trying  to  establish  a  colony, 
which  he  called  "  Avalon,"  much  farther  north,  and  who  had 
grown,  in  the  words  of  a  letter  of  the  period,  "  weary  of  his 
intolerable  plantation  at  Newfoundland,  where  he  hath  found 
between  eight  and  nine  months'  winter,  and  upon  the  land 
nothing  but  rocks,  lakes,  or  morasses  like  bogs,  which  one 
might  thrust  a  pike  down  to  the  butt -head."  But  he  died 
before  the  new  charter  was  signed ;  and  was  succeeded  by  his 
son  Cecil,  the  second  Lord  Baltimore,  who  fully  adopted  his 
father's  plans,  and  amply  defrayed  the  cost  of  the  first  expedi 
tion,  this  being  ,£40,000. 


11* 


1 66 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


There   exists   a  graphic   account  of  the  voyage  of  the  first 
Maryland   settlers   by    Father   White,  their  chaplain,  in   his  re- 


CECIL    CALVERT,   SECOND    LORD   BALTIMORE. 

port   to  his   religious   superiors   at    Rome.     He  describes  with 
delight   his    first   ascent    of    the    Potomac    River,  of   which   he 


"AX  ENGLISH  NATION."  l6/ 

says,  "  The  Thames  itself  is  a  mere  rivulet  to  it ;"  and  when 
he  reaches  the  St.  Mary's  River,  where  the  colony  was  found 
ed  (March  27,  1634),  he  says,  "The  finger  of  God  is  in  this, 
and  He  purposes  some  great  benefit  to  this  nation."  He 
might  well  say  that,  for  the  career  of  the  early  Maryland  col 
ony  was  peaceful,  tolerant,  and  honorable.  It  was  the  most 
nearly  independent  and  self-governing  of  the  early  colonies, 
the  King  asking  nothing  of  it  but  two  Indian  arrows  each 
year,  and  one -fifth  of  its  gold  or  silver.  It  was  called  "the 
land  of  the  sanctuary ;"  all  Christians  were  tolerated  there, 
though  it  did  not,  like  Rhode  Island,  expressly  extend  its  tol 
eration  beyond  Christianity.  By  degrees  it  passed  under  the 
charge  of  Puritans  from  Virginia,  who  proved  themselves  less 
liberal  to  Roman  Catholics  than  the  latter  had  been  to  them. 
But  all  working  together  laid  the  foundation  of  a  new  com 
munity,  sharing  in  some  respects  the  pursuits  and  destinies  of 
Virginia,  though  more  peaceful,  and  at  times  more  prosperous. 
The  other  independent  colony  came  from  Sweden  —  the 
•only  one  ever  planted  by  that  nation.  In  the  first  years  of 
Virginia  emigration  Lord  Delaware,  who  was  then  governor, 
sailed  up  the  river  that  took  his  name ;  but  he  left  no  settle 
ment  there.  The  Dutch  afterwards  tried  to  colonize  it,  but 
the  Indians  destroyed  the  colony.  Then  the  great  Protestant 
King  of  Sweden,  Gustavus  Adolphus,  the  "  Lion  of  the  North," 
resolved,  at  the  suggestion  of  a  Stockholm  merchant,  William 
Usselinx,  to  found  a  colony,  which,  unlike  Virginia,  should 
have  no  slaves,  and  which  should  be  "  the  jewel  of  his  king 
dom."  He  died,  and  his  little  daughter  Christina  succeeded 
him ;  but  the  Prime-minister,  Oxenstiern,  carried  out  the  orig 
inal  plan,  sending  fifty  Swedes  and  Finlanders,  in  1638,  in  two 
vessels  commanded  by  Peter  Minuit,  who  had  previously  been 
Governor  of  New  Netherland.  In  spite  of  the  loud  protesta 
tions  of  the  Dutch  governor,  Kieft,  they  established  them- 
-selves  on  the  river  Delaware,  and  called  their  fort  Christiana, 


1 68  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

in  honor  of  the  young  queen.  Four  years  after,  a  governor 
was  sent  out  to  them  from  Sweden,  a  lieutenant -colonel  in 
the  Swedish  army,  John  Printz,  described  by  one  writer  as  a 
person  "  who  weighed  four  hundred  pounds,  and  drank  three 
drinks  at  every  meal."  He  built  himself  a  house,  let  us  hope 
on  firm  foundations,  upon  what  is  now  called  Province  Island, 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Schuylkill  River.  Meanwhile,  the  Eng 
lish  from  New  Haven  had  settled  within  the  bounds  of  the 
colony,  and  the  Dutch  had  driven  them  away,  and  then  tres 
passed  themselves.  Nevertheless  there  was  a  Swedish  colony 
thus  established  in  America,  rivalling  the  Dutch  of  "  New 
Netherland  "  in  enterprise  and  industry,  but  destined  to  pass 
away  and  leave  hardly  a  trace  behind. 

Such  were  the  beginnings  of  European  colonization  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  pf  North  America.  In  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century  (1650)  the  condition  of  that  coast  was  as 
follows.  The  New  England  colonies  were  of  course  English, 
and  so  were  Virginia  and  Maryland;  but  the  fertile  region 
between  these  northern  and  southern  colonies  was  claimed 
and  occupied,  as  has  been  shown,  by  Holland  and  by  Sweden, 
The  French  claimed  the  unsettled  regions  now  known  as  the 
Carolinas  and  Georgia ;  the  Spaniards  held  all  beyond.  Amid 
all  these  conflicting  nationalities,  what  had  become  of  Raleigh's 
dream?  The  seven  English  colonies,  arranged  in  order  of 
time,  were  as  follows:  Virginia,  founded  in  1607,  and  called  to 
this  day  "  the  Old  Dominion ;"  New  Plymouth,  founded  in 
1620,  and  still  often  called  "the  Old  Colony;"  Massachusetts 
Bay,  1628;  Connecticut,  1633;  Maryland,  1634;  Rhode  Island 
and  Providence  Plantations,  1636;  New  Haven,  1638.  Four 
of  these  —  the  two  Massachusetts  and  the  two  Connecticut 
colonies  —  had  been  leagued  together  since  1643  against  the 
Indians  and  the  Dutch ;  the  others  stood  alone,  each  for  itself. 
Among  these  scattered  settlements,  where  was  Raleigh's  "  Eng 
lish  nation?"  It  existed  in  these  germs. 


VII. 

THE  HUNDRED   YEARS'    WAR. 

EUROPEAN  history  makes  much  of  the  "Seven  Years' 
War  "  and  the  "  Thirty  Years'  War ;"  and  when  we  think 
of  a  continuous  national  contest  for  even  the  least  of  those 
periods,  there  is  something  terrible  in  the  picture.  But  the 
feeble  English  colonies  in  America,  besides  all  the  difficul 
ties  of  pioneer  life,  had  to  sustain  a  warfare  that  lasted,  with 
few  intermissions,  for  about  a  hundred  years.  It  was,  more 
over,  a  warfare  against  the  most  savage  and  stealthy  enemies, 
gradually  trained  and  re-enforced  by  the  most  formidable  mili 
tary  skill  of  Europe.  Without  counting  the  early  feuds,  such 
as  the  Pequot  War,  there  elapsed  almost  precisely  a  century 
from  the  accession  of  King  Philip,  in  1662,  to  the  Peace  of 
Paris,  which  nominally  ended  the  last  French  and  Indian  War 
in  1763.  During  this  whole  period,  with  pacific  intervals  that 
sometimes  lasted  for  years,  the  same  essential  contest  went 
on ;  the  real  question  being,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  time, 
whether  France  or  England  should  control  the  continent. 
The  description  of  this  prolonged  war  may  therefore  well 
precede  any  general  account  of  the  colonial  or  provincial  life 
in  America. 

The  early  explorers  of  the  Atlantic  coast  usually  testify- 
that  they  found  the  Indians  a  gentle,  not  a  ferocious,  people. 
They  were  as  ready  as  could  be  expected  to  accept  the  friend 
ship  of  the  white  race.  In  almost  every  case  of  quarrel  the 


1 70  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

white  men  were  the  immediate  aggressors,  and  where  they 
were  attacked  without  seeming  cause — as  when  Smith's  Vir 
ginian  colony  was  assailed  by  the  Indians  in  the  first  fortnight 
*of  its  existence — there  is  good  reason  to  think  that  the  act  of 
the  Indians  was  in  revenge  for  wrongs  elsewhere.  One  of 
the  first  impulses  of  the  early  explorers  was  to  kidnap  natives 
for  exhibition  in  Europe,  in  order  to  excite  the  curiosity  of 
kings  or  the  zeal  of  priests ;  and  even  where  these  captives 
were  restored  unharmed,  the  distrust  could  not  be  removed. 
Add  to  this  the  acts  of  plunder,  lust,  or  violence,  and  there 
was  plenty  of  provocation  given  from  the  very  outset. 

The  disposition  to  cheat  and  defraud  the  Indians  has  been 
much  exaggerated,  at  least  as  regards  the  English  settlers. 
The  early  Spanish  invaders  made  no  pretence  of  buying  one 
foot  of  land  from  the  Indians,  whereas  the  English  often  went 
through  the  form  of  purchase,  and  very  commonly  put  in  prac 
tice  the  reality.  The  Pilgrims,  at  the  very  beginning,  took 
baskets  of  corn  from  an  Indian  grave  to  be  used  as  seed,  and 
paid  for  it  afterwards.  The  year  after  the  Massachusetts  col 
ony  was  founded,  the  court  decreed :  "  It  is  ordered  that  Josias 
Plastowe  shall  (for  stealing  four  baskets  of  corne  from  the  In 
dians)  returne  them  eight  baskets  againe,  be  fined  five  pounds, 
and  hereafter  called  by  the  name  of  Josias,  and  not  Mr.,  as 
formerly  he  used  to  be."  As  a  mere  matter  of  policy,  it  was 
the  general  disposition  of  the  English  settlers  to  obtain  lands 
by  honest  sale;  indeed,  Governor  Josiah  Winslow,  of  Plymouth, 
declared,  in  reference  to  King  Philip's  War,  that  "  before  these 
present  troubles  broke  out  the  English  did  not  possess  one 
foot  of  land  in  this  colony  but  what  was  fairly  obtained  by 
honest  purchase  of  the  Indian  proprietors."  This  policy  was 
quite  general.  Captain  West,  in  1610,  bought  the  site  of  what 
is  now  Richmond,  Virginia,  for  some  copper.  The  Dutch 
Governor  Minuit  bought  the  island  of  Manhattan,  in  1626,  for 
sixty  gilders.  Lord  Baltimore's  company  purchased  land  for 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'   WAR.  \J\ 

cloth,  tools,  and  trinkets ;  the  Swedes  obtained  the  site  of 
Christiana  for  a  kettle ;  Roger  Williams  bought  the  island  of 
Rhode  Island  for  forty  fathoms  of  white  beads ;  and  New 
Haven  was  sold  to  the  whites,  in  1638,  for  "twelve  coats  of 
English  cloth,  twelve  alchemy  spoons,  twelve  hoes,  twelve 
hatchets,  twelve  porringers,  twenty -four  knives,  and  twenty- 
four  cases  of  French  knives  and  spoons."  Many  other  such 
purchases  will  be  found  recorded  by  Dr.  Ellis.  And  though 
the  price  paid  might  often  seem  ludicrously  small,  yet  we  must 
remember  that  a  knife  or  a  hatchet  was  really  worth  more  to 
an  Indian  than  many  square  miles  of  wild  land;  while  even 
the  beads  were  a  substitute  for  wampum,  or  wompom,  which 
was  their  circulating  medium  in  dealing  with  each  other  and 
with  the  whites,  and  was  worth,  in  1660,  five  shillings  a 
fathom. 

So  far  as  the  mere  bargaining  went,  the  Indians  were  not 
individually  the  sufferers  in  the  early  days ;  but  we  must  re 
member  that  behind  all  these  transactions  there  often  lay  a 
theory  which  was  as  merciless  as  that  quoted  in  a  previous 
paper  from  the  Spanish  "  Requisition,"  and  which  would,  if  log 
ically  carried  out,  have  made  all  these  bargainings  quite  super 
fluous.  Increase  Mather  begins  his  history  of  King  Philip's 
War  with  this  phrase,  "  That  the  Heathen  People  amongst 
whom  we  live,  and  whose  Land  the  Lord  God  of  our  Fathers 
hath  given  to  us  for  a  rightful  Possession ;"  and  it  was  this 
attitude  of  hostile  superiority  that  gave  the  sting  to  all  the 
relations  of  the  two  races.  If  a  quarrel  rose,  it  was  apt  to  be 
the  white  man's  fault ;  and  after  it  had  arisen,  even  the  hu- 
maner  Englishmen  usually  sided  with  their  race,  as  when  the 
peaceful  Plymouth  men  went  to  war  in  defence  of  the  Wey- 
mouth  reprobates.  This  fact,  and  the  vague  feeling  that  an 
irresistible  pressure  was  displacing  them,  caused  most  of  the 
early  Indian  outbreaks.  And  when  hostilities  had  once  arisen, 
it  was  very  rare  for  a  white  man  of  English  birth  to  be  found 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

fighting  against  his  own  people,  although  it  grew  more  and 
more  common  to  find  Indians  on  both  sides. 

As  time  went  on,  each  party  learned  from  the  other.  In 
the  early  explorations,  as  of  Champlain  and  Smith,  we  see  the 
Indians  terrified  by  their  first  sight  of  fire-arms,  but  soon  be 
coming  skilled  in  the  use  of  them.  "  The  King,  with  fortie 
Bowmen  to  guard  me,"  says  Captain  John  Smith,  in  1608, 
"  entreated  me  to  discharge  my  Pistoll,  which  they  there  pre 
sented  to  me,  with  a  mark  at  sixscore  to  strike  therewith ;  but 
to  spoil  the  practise  I  broke  the  cocke,  whereat  they  were 
much  discontented."  But  writing  more  than  twenty  years 
later,  in  1631,  he  says  of  the  Virginia  settlers,  "The  loving 
Salvages  their  kinde  friends  they  trained  up  so  well  to  shoot 
in  a  Peace  [fowling-piece]  to  hunt  and  kill  them  fowle,  they 
became  more  expert  than  our  own  countrymen."  La  Hontan, 
writing  in  1703,  says  of  the  successors  of  those  against  whom 
Champlain  had  first  used  fire-arms,  "  The  Strength  of  the  Iro- 
quese  lies  in  engaging  with  Fire  Arms  in  a  Forrest,  for  they 
shoot  very  dexterously."  They  learned  also  to  make  more 
skilful  fortifications,  and  to  keep  a  regular  watch  at  night, 
which  in  the  time  of  the  early  explorers  they  had  omitted. 
The  same  La  Hontan  says  of  the  Iroquois,  "  They  are  as  neg 
ligent  in  the  night-time  as  they  are  vigilant  in  the  day." 

But  it  is  equally  true  that  the  English  colonists  learned 
much  in  the  way  of  forest  warfare  from  the  Indians.  The 
French  carried  their  imitation  so  far  that  they  often  disguised 
themselves  to  resemble  their  allies,  with  paint,  feathers,  and  all ; 
it  was  sometimes  impossible  to  tell  in  an  attacking  party  which 
warriors  were  French  and  which  were  Indians.  Without  often 
going  so  far  as  this,  the  English  colonists  still  modified  their 
tactics.  At  first  they  seemed  almost  irresistible  because  of 
their  armor  and  weapons.  In  the  very  first  year  of  the  Plym 
outh  settlement,  when  report  was  brought  that  their  friend 
Massasoit  had  been  attacked  by  the  Narragansets,  and  a 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS^    WAR.  173 

friendly  Indian  had  been  killed,  the  colony  sent  ten  armed 
men,  including  Miles  Standish,  to  the  Indian  town  of  Namas- 
ket  (now  Middleborough)  to  rescue  or  revenge  their  friend ; 
and  they  succeeded  in  their  enterprise,  surrounding  the  chiefs 
house,  and  frightening  every  one  in  a  large  Indian  village  by 
two  discharges  of  their  muskets. 

But  the  heavy  armor  gradually  proved  a  doubtful  advan 
tage  against  a  stealthy  and  light-footed  foe.  In  spite  of  the 
superior  physical  strength  of  the  Englishman,  he  could  not 
travel  long  distances  through  the  woods  or  along  the  sands 
without  lightening  his  weight.  He  learned  also  to  fight  from 
behind  a  tree,  to  follow  a  trail,  to  cover  his  body  with  hemlock 
boughs  for  disguise  when  scouting.  Captain  Church  states 
in  his  own  narrative  that  he  learned  from  his  Indian  soldiers 
to  march  his  men  "thin  and  scattering"  through  the  woods; 
that  the  English  had  previously,  according  to  the  Indians, 
"  kept  in  a  heap  together,  so  that  it  was  as  easy  to  hit  them 
as  to  hit  a  house."  Even  the  advantage  of  fire-arms  involved 
the  risk  of  being  without  ammunition,  so  that  the  Rhode 
Island  colony,  by  the  code  of  laws  adopted  in  1647,  required 
that  every  man  between  seventeen  and  seventy  should  have 
a  bow  with  four  arrows,  and  exercise  with  them ;  and  that 
each  father  should  furnish  every  son  from  seven  to  seventeen 
years  old  with  a  bow,  two  arrows,  and  shafts,  and  should  bring 
them  up  to  shooting.  If  this  statute  was  violated  a  fine  was 
imposed,  which  the  father  must  pay  for  the  son,  the  master 
for  the  servant,  deducting  it  in  the  latter  case  from  his  wages. 

Less  satisfactory  was  the  change  by  which  the  taking  of 
scalps  came  to  be  a  recognized  part  of  colonial  warfare.  Han 
nah  Dustin,  who  escaped  from  Indian  captivity  in  1698,  took 
ten  scalps  with  her  own  hand,  and  was  paid  for  them.  Cap 
tain  Church,  undertaking  his  expedition  against  the  Eastern 
Indians,  in  1705,  after  the  Deerfield  massacre,  announced  that 
he  had  not  hitherto  permitted  the  scalping  of  "  Canada  men," 


174  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

but  should  thenceforth  allow  it.  In  1722,  when  the  Massachu 
setts  colony  sent  an  expedition  against  the  village  of  "  praying 
Indians,"  founded  by  Father  Rasle,  they  offered  for  each  scalp 
a  bounty  of  ^"15,  afterwards  increased  to  ^100;  and  this  in 
humanity  was  so  far  carried  out  that  the  French  priest  himself 
was  one  of  the  victims.  Jeremiah  Bumstead,  of  Boston,  made 
this  entry  in  his  almanac  in  the  same  year :  "  Aug.  22,  28 
Indian  scalps  brought  to  Boston,  one  of  which  was  Bombazen's 
[an  Indian  chief]  and  one  fryer  Raile's."  Two  years  after,  the 
celebrated  but  inappropriately  named  Captain  Lovewell,  the 
foremost  Indian  fighter  of  his  region,  came  upon  ten  Indians 
asleep  round  a  pond ;  he  and  his  men  killed  and  scalped  them 
all,  and  entered  Dover,  New  Hampshire,  bearing  the  ten  scalps 
stretched  on  hoops  and  elevated  on  poles.  After  receiving  an 
ovation  in  Dover  they  went  by  water  to  Boston,  and  were  jfeid 
a  thousand  pounds  for  their  scalps.  Yet  Lovewell's  party  was 
always  accompanied  by  a  chaplain,  and  had  prayers  every 
morning  and  evening. 

The  most  painful  aspect  of  the  whole  practice  lies  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  not  confined  to  those  actually  engaged  in  fight 
ing,  but  that  the  colonial  authorities  actually  established  a 
tariff  of  prices  for  scalps,  including  even  non-combatants — so 
much  for  a  man's,  so  much  for  a  woman's,  so  much  for  a 
child's.  Dr.  Ellis  has  lately  pointed  out  the  striking  circum 
stance  that  whereas  William  Penn  had  declared  the  person 
of  an  Indian  to  be  "sacred,"  his  grandson,  in  1764,  offered 
$134  for  the  scalp  of  an  Indian  man,  $130  for  that  of  a  boy 
under  ten,  and  $50  for  that  of  a  woman  or  girl.  The  habit 
doubtless  began  in  the  fury  of  retaliation,  and  was  continued 
in  order  to  conciliate  Indian  allies ;  and  when  bounties  were 
offered  to  them,  the  white  volunteers  naturally  claimed  a  share. 
But  there  is  no  doubt  that  Puritan  theology  helped  the  adop 
tion  of  the  practice.  It  was  partly  because  the  Indian  was 
held  to  be  something  worse  than  a  beast  that  he  was  treated 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR.  175 

with  very  little  mercy.  The  truth  is  that  he  was  viewed  as 
a  fiend,  and  there  could  not  be  much  scruple  about  using  in 
humanities  against  a  demon.  Cotton  Mather  calls  Satan  "  the 
old  landlord "  of  the  American  wilderness,  and  says  in  his 
"  Magnalia :"  "  These  Parts  were  then  covered  with  Nations  of 
Barbarous  Indians  and  Infidels,  in  whom  the  Prince  of  the 
Power  of  the  Air  did  work  as  a  Spirit;  nor  could  it  be  ex 
pected  that  Nations  of  Wretches  whose  whole  religion  was 
the  most  Explicit  sort  of  Devil -Worship  should  not  be  acted 
by  the  Devil  to  engage  in  some  early  and  bloody  Action  for 
the  Extinction  of  a  Plantation  so  contrary  to  his  Interests  as 
that  of  New  England  was;' 

Before  the  French  influence  began  to  be  felt  there  was 
very  little  union  on  the  part  of  the  Indians,  and  each  colony 
adjusted  its  own  relations  with  them.  At  the  time  of  the 
frightful  Indian  massacre  in  the  Virginia  colony  (March  22, 
1622),  when  three  hundred  and  forty- seven  men,  women,  and 
children  were  murdered,  the  Plymouth  colony  was  living  in 
entire  peace  with  its  savage  neighbors.  "  We  have  found  the 
Indians,"  wrote  Governor  Winslow,  "very  faithful  to  their  cov 
enants  of  peace  with  us,  very  loving  and  willing  to  pleasure 
us.  We  go  with  them  in  some  cases  fifty  miles  into  the  coun 
try,  and  walk  as  safely  and  peaceably  in  the  woods  as  in  the 
highways  of  England."  The  treaty  with  Massasoit  lasted  for 
more  than  fifty  years,  and  the  first  bloodshed  between  the 
Plymouth  men  and  the  Indians  was  incurred  in  the  protection 
of  the  colony  of  Weymouth,  which  had  brought  trouble  on 
itself  in  1623.  The  Connecticut  settlements  had  far  more 
difficulty  with  the  Indians  than  those  in  Massachusetts,  but 
the  severe  punishment  inflicted  on  the  Pequots  in  1637  quieted 
the  savages  for  a  long  time.  In  that  fight  a  village  of  seventy 
wigwams  was  destroyed  by  a  force  of  ninety  white  men  and 
several  hundred  friendly  Indians ;  and  Captain  Underbill,  the 
second  in  command,  has  left  a  quaint  delineation  of  the  attack. 


176  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

There  was  a  period  resembling  peace  in  the  Eastern  colo 
nies  for  nearly  forty  years  after  the  Pequot  war,  while  in  Vir 
ginia  there  were  renewed  massacres  in  1644  and  1656.  But 
the  first  organized  Indian  outbreak  began  with  the  conspiracy 
of  King  Philip  in  1675,  although  the  seeds  had  been  sown 
before  that  chief  succeeded  to  power  in  1662.  In  that  year 
Wamsutta,  or  Alexander,  Philip's  brother — both  being  sons 
of  Massasoit — having  fallen  under  some  suspicion,  was  either 
compelled  or  persuaded  by  Major  Josiah  Winslow,  afterwards 
the  first  native-born  Governor  of  Plymouth,  to  visit  that  settle 
ment.  The  Indian  came  with  his  whole  train  of  warriors  and 
women,  including  his  Queen,  the  celebrated  "  squaw  sachem  " 
Weetamo,  and  they  stayed  at  Winslow's  house.  Here  the 
chief  fell  ill.  The  day  was  very  hot,  and  though  Winslow 
offered  his  horse  to  the  chief,  it  was  refused,  because  there 
was  none  for  his  squaw  or  the  other  women.  He  was  sent 
home  because  of  illness,  and  died  before  he  got  half-way  home. 
This  is  the  story  as  told  by  Hubbard,  but  not  altogether  con 
firmed  by  other  authorities.  If  true,  it  is  interesting  as  con 
firming  the  theory  of  that  careful  student,  Mr.  Lucien  Carr, 
that  the  early  position  of  women  among  the  Indians  was 
higher  than  has  been  generally  believed.  It  is  pretty  certain, 
at  any  rate,  that  Alexander's  widow,  Weetamo,  believed  her 
husband  to  have  been  poisoned  by  the  English,  and  she  ulti 
mately  sided  with  Philip  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  appar 
ently  led  him  and  other  Indians  to  the  same  view  as  to  the 
poisoning.  It  is  evident  that  from  the  time  of  Philip's  acces 
sion  to  authority,  whatever  he  may  have  claimed,  his  mind  was 
turned  more  and  more  against  the  English. 

It  is  now  doubted  whether  the  war  known  as  King  Philip's 
War  was  the  result  of  such  deliberate  and  organized  action 
as  was  formerly  supposed,  but  about  the  formidable  strength 
of  the  outbreak  there  can  be  no  question.  It  began  in  June, 
1675;  Philip  was  killed  August  12,  1676,  and  the  war  was 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS1  WAR.  177 

prolonged  at  the  eastward  for  nearly  two  years  after  his  death. 
Ten  or  twelve  Puritan  towns  were  utterly  destroyed,  many 
more  damaged,  and  five  or  six  hundred  men  were  killed  or 
missing.  The  war  cost  the  colonists  ,£100,000,  and  the  Plym 
outh  colony  was  left  under  a  debt  exceeding  the  whole  valua 
tion  of  its  property  —  a  debt  ultimately  paid,  both  principal 
and  interest.  On  the  other  hand,  the  war  tested  and  cemented 
the  league  founded  in  1643  between  four  colonies — Massachu 
setts,  Plymouth,  New  Haven,  and  Connecticut  —  against  the 
Indians  and  Dutch,  while  this  prepared  the  way  more  and 
more  for  the  extensive  combinations  that  came  after.  In  this 
early  war,  as  the  Indians  had  no  French  allies,  so  the  English 
had  few  Indian  allies ;  and  it  was  less  complex  than  the  later 
contests,  and  so  far  less  formidable.  But  it  was  the  first  real 
experience  on  the  part  of  the  Eastern  colonists  of  all  the 
peculiar  horrors  of  Indian  warfare — the  stealthy  approach,  the 
abused  hospitality,  the  early  morning  assault,  the  maimed  cat 
tle,  tortured  prisoners,  slain  infants.  All  the  terrors  that  now 
attach  to  a  frontier  attack  of  Apaches  or  Comanches  belonged 
to  the  daily  life  of  settlers  in  New  England  and  Virginia  for 
many  years,  with  one  vast  difference,  arising  from  the  total 
absence  in  those  early  days  of  any  personal  violence  or  insult 
to  women.  By  the  general  agreement  of  witnesses  from  all 
nations,  including  the  women  captives  themselves,  this  crown 
ing  crime  was  then  wholly  absent.  The  once  famous  "  white 
woman,"  Mary  Jemison,  who  was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Sen- 
ecas  at  ten  years  old,  in  1743 — who  lived  in  that  tribe  all  her 
life,  survived  two  Indian  husbands,  and  at  last  died  at  ninety 
— always  testified  that  she  had  never  received  an  insult  from 
an  Indian,  and  had  never  known  of  a  captive's  receiving  any. 
She  added  that  she  had  known  few  instances  in  the  tribe  of 
conjugal  immorality,  although  she  lived  to  see  it  demoralized 
and  ruined  by  strong  drink. 

The  English  colonists  seem  never  to  have  inflicted  on  the 

12 


•I 78  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Indians  any  cruelty  resulting  from  sensual  vices,  but  of  barbar 
ity  of  another  kind  there  was  plenty,  for  it  was  a  cruel  age. 
When  the  Narraganset  fort  was  taken  by  the  English,  De 
cember  19,  1675,  the  wigwams  within  the  fort  were  all  set  on 
fire,  against  the  earnest  entreaty  of  Captain  Church ;  and  it 
was  thought  that  more  than  one-half  the  English  loss — which 
amounted  to  several  hundred  —  might  have  been  saved  had 
there  been  any  shelter  for  their  own  wounded  on  that  cold 
night.  This,  however,  was  a  question  of  military  necessity; 
but  the  true  spirit  of  the  age  was  seen  in  the  punishments 
inflicted  after  the  war  was  over.  The  heads  of  Philip's  chief 
followers  were  cut  off,  though  Captain  Church,  their  captor, 
had  promised  to  spare  their  lives ;  and  Philip  himself  was 
beheaded  and  quartered  by  Church's  order,  since  he  was  re 
garded,  curiously  enough,  as  a  rebel  against  Charles  the  Sec 
ond,  and  this  was  the  State  punishment  for  treason.  Another 
avowed  reason  was,  that  "  as  he  had  caused  many  an  English 
man's  body  to  lye  unburied,"  not  one  of  his  bones  should  be 
placed  under  ground.  The  head  was  set  upon  a  pole  in 
Plymouth,  where  it  remained  for  more  than  twenty-four  years. 
Yet  when  we  remember  that  the  heads  of  alleged  traitors 
were  exposed  in  London  at  Temple  Bar  for  nearly  a  century 
longer — till  1772  at  least — it  is  unjust  to  infer  from  this  course 
any  such  fiendish  cruelty  as  it  would  now  imply.  It  is  neces 
sary  to  extend  the  same  charity,  however  hard  it  may  be,  to 
the  selling  of  Philip's  wife  and  little  son  into  slavery  at  the 
Bermudas ;  and  here,  as  has  been  seen,  the  clergy  were  con 
sulted  and  the  Old  Testament  called  into  requisition. 

While  these  events  were  passing  in  the  Eastern  settle 
ments  there  were  Indian  outbreaks  in  Virginia,  resulting  in 
war  among  the  white  settlers  themselves.  The  colony  was,  for 
various  reasons,  discontented ;  it  was  greatly  oppressed,  and  a 
series  of  Indian  murders  brought  the  troubles  to  a  climax. 
The  policy  pursued  against  the  Indians  was  severe,  and  yet 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'  WAR. 


179 


DEATH    OF    KING    PHILIP. 


there  was  no  proper  protection  afforded  by  the  government; 
war  was  declared  against  them  in  1676,  and  then  the  forces 
sent  out  were  suddenly  disbanded  by  the  governor,  Berkeley. 


ISO  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

At  last  there  was  a  popular  rebellion,  which  included  almost 
all  the  civil  and  military  officers  of  the  colony,  and  the  rebel 
lious  party  put  Nathaniel  Bacon,  Jr.,  a  recently  arrived  but 
very  popular  planter,  at  their  head.  He  marched  with  five 
hundred  men  against  the  Indians,  but  was  proclaimed  a  trai 
tor  by  the  governor,  whom  Bacon  proclaimed  a  traitor  in  re 
turn.  The  war  with  the  savages  became  by  degrees  quite  sec 
ondary  to  the  internal  contests  among  the  English,  in  the 
course  of  which  Bacon  took  and  burned  Jamestown,  begin 
ning,  it  is  said,  with  his  own  house ;  but  he  died  soon  after, 
the  insurrection  was  suppressed,  and  the  Indians  were  finally 
quieted  by  a  treaty. 

Into  all  the  Indian  wars  after  King  Philip's  death  two 
nationalities  besides  the  Indian  and  English  entered  in  an  im 
portant  way.  These  were  the  Dutch  and  the  French.  It  was 
the  Dutch  who,  soon  after  1614,  first  sold  fire-arms  to  the  In 
dians  in  defiance  of  their  own  laws,  and  by  this  means  greatly 
increased  the  horrors  of  the  Indian  warfare.  On  the  other 
hand,  the  Dutch  did  to  the  English  colonists,  though  uninten 
tionally,  a  service  so  great  that  the  whole  issue  of  the  pro 
longed  war  may  have  turned  upon  it,  because  of  the  close 
friendship  they  established  with  the  Five  Nations,  commonly 
called  the  Iroquois.  These  tribes,  the  Cayugas,  Mohawks, 
Oneidas,  Onondagas,  and  Senecas  —  afterwards  joined  by  the 
Tuscaroras  —  held  the  key  to  the  continent.  Occupying  the 
greater  part  of  what  is  now  the  State  of  New  York,  they  virt 
ually  ruled  the  country  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Mississippi, 
and  from  the  Great  Lakes  to  the  Savannah  River.  They  were 
from  the  first  treated  with  great  consideration  by  the  Dutch, 
and  they  remained,  with  brief  intervals  of  war,  their  firm 
friends.  One  war,  indeed,  there  was  under  the  injudicious  man 
agement  of  Governor  Kieft,  lasting  from  1640  to  1643;  and 
this  came  near  involving  the  English  colonies,  while  it  caused 
the  death  of  sixteen  hundred  Indians,  first  or  last,  seven  hun- 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'    WAR.  l8l 

dred  of  these  being  massacred  under  the  borrowed  Puritan 
leader  Captain  Underhill.  But  this  made  no  permanent  in 
terruption  to  the  alliance  between  the  Iroquois  and  the  Dutch. 

When  the  New  Netherland  yielded  to  the  English,  the 
same  alliance  was  retained,  and  to  this  we  probably  owe  the 
preservation  of  the  colonies,  their  union  against  England,  and 
the  very  existence  of  the  present  American  nation.  Yet  the 
first  English  governor,  Golden,  has  left  on  record  the  com 
plaint  of  an  Indian  chief,  who  said  that  they  very  soon  felt 
the  difference  between  the  two  alliances.  "  When  the  Dutch 
held  this  country,"  he  said,  "we  lay  in  their  houses,  but  the 
English  have  always  made  us  lie  out-of-doors." 

But  if  the  Dutch  were  thus  an  important  factor  in  the 
Indian  wars,  the  French  became  almost  the  controlling  influ 
ence  on  the  other  side.  Except  for  the  strip  of  English  col 
onies  along  the  sea-shore,  the  North  American  continent  north 
of  Mexico  was  French.  This  was  not  the  result  of  accident 
or  of  the  greater  energy  of  that  nation,  but  of  a  systematic 
policy,  beginning  with  Champlain,  and  never  abandoned  by  his 
successors.  This  plan  was,  as  admirably  stated  by  Parkman, 
"  to  influence  Indian  counsels,  to  hold  the  balance  of  power 
between  adverse  tribes,  to  envelop  in  the  net-work  of  French 
power  and  diplomacy  the  remotest  hordes  of  the  wilderness." 
With  this  was  combined  a  love  of  exploration,  so  great  that 
it  was  hard  to  say  which  assisted  the  most  in  spreading  their 
dominion — religion,  the  love  of  adventure,  diplomatic  skill,  or 
military  talent.  These  between  them  gave  the  interior  of  the 
continent  to  the  French.  One  of  the  New  York  governors 
wrote  home  that  if  the  French  were  to  hold  all  that  they  had 
discovered,  England  would  not  have  a  hundred  miles  from  the 
sea  anywhere. 

France  had  early  occupied  Acadia,  Canada,  and  the  St.  Law 
rence  on  the  north.  Marquette  rediscovered  the  Mississippi, 
and  La  Salle  traced  it,  though  Alvar  Nunez  had  crossed  it, 


182  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

and  De  Soto  had  been  buried  beneath  it.  A  Frenchman  first 
crossed  the  Rocky  Mountains ;  the  French  settled  the  Missis 
sippi  Valley  in  1699,  and  Mobile  in  1702.  The  great  West 
ern  valleys  are  still  full  of  French  names,  and  for  every  one 
left,  two  or  three  have  been  blotted  out.  The  English  maps, 
down  to  the  year  1763,  give  the  name  "New  France"  not  to 
Canada  only,  but  to  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  valleys.  New 
France  was  vast ;  New  England  was  a  narrow  strip  along  the 
shore.  But  there  was  a  yet  greater  difference  in  the  tenure 
by  which  the  two  nations  held  their  nominal  settlements.  The 
French  held  theirs  with  the  aid  of  a  vast  system  of  paid  offi 
cials,  priests,  generals,  and  governors ;  the  English  colonists 
kept  theirs  for  themselves,  aided  by  a  little  chartered  authority 
or  deputed  power.  Moreover,  the  French  retained  theirs  by 
a  chain  of  forts  and  a  net-work  of  trading  posts ;  the  English 
held  theirs  by  sober  agriculture.  In  the  end  the  spade  and 
axe  proved  mightier  than  the  sword.  What  postponed  the 
triumph  was  that  the  French,  not  the  English,  had  won  the 
hearts  of  the  Indians. 

This  subject  has  been  considered  in  a  previous  chapter, 
and  need  be  only  briefly  mentioned  here;  but  it  should  not 
be  wholly  passed  by.  To  the  Indian,  the  Frenchman  was  a 
daring  swordsman,  a  gay  cavalier,  a  dashing  leader,  and  the 
most  charming  of  companions ;  the  Englishman  was  a  plod 
ding  and  sordid  agriculturist.  "  The  stoic  of  the  woods  "  saw 
men  infinitely  his  superiors  in  all  knowledge  and  in  the  refine 
ments  of  life,  who  yet  cheerfully  accepted  his  way  of  living, 
and  took  with  apparent  relish  to  his  whole  way  of  existence. 
Charlevoix  sums  it  all  up  admirably :  "  The  savages  did  not 
become  French :  the  Frenchmen  became  savages."  To  the 
savage,  at  least,  the  alliance  was  inestimable.  What  saved  the 
English  colonies  was  the  fact  that  it  was  not  quite  universal 
It  failed  to  reach  the  most  advanced,  the  most  powerful,  and 
the  most  central  race  of  savages — the  tribes  called  Iroquois.  It 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'1   WAR,  183 

took  the  French  a  great  many  years  to  outgrow  the  attitude  of 
hostility  to  these  tribes  which  began  with  the  attack  of  Cham- 
plain  and  a  few  Frenchmen  on  an  Iroquois  fort.  Baron  La 
Hontan,  one  of  the  few  Frenchmen  who  were  not  also  good 
Catholics,  attributes  this  mainly  to  the  influence  of  the  priests, 
He  says,  in  the  preface  to  the  English  translation  of  his  letters 
(1703):  "Notwithstanding  the  veneration  I  have  for  the  clergy, 
I  impute  to  them  all  the  mischief  the  Iroquese  have  done  to 
the  French  colonies  in  the  course  of  a  war  that  would  never 
have  been  undertaken  if  it  had  not  been  for  the  counsels  of 
those  pious  churchmen."  But  whatever  the  cause,  the  fact  was 
of  vital  importance,  and  proved  to  be,  as  has  been  already  said, 
the  turning-point  of  the  whole  controversy. 

These  being  the  general  features  of  the  French  and  In 
dian  warfare,  it  remains  only  to  consider  briefly  its  successive 
stages.  It  took  the  form  of  a  series  of  outbreaks,  most  of 
which  were  so  far  connected  with  public  affairs  in  Europe 
that  their  very  names  often  record  the  successive  rulers  under 
whose  nominal  authority  they  were  waged.  The  first,  known 
as  "  King  William's  War,"  and  sometimes  as  "  St.  Castin's 
WTar,"  began  in  1688,  ten  years  after  the  close  of  King  Philip's 
War,  while  France  and  England  were  still  at  peace.  In  April 
of  the  next  year  came  the  news  that  William  of  Orange  had 
landed  in  England,  and  this  change  in  the  English  dynasty 
was  an  important  argument  in  the  hands  of  the  French,  who 
insisted  on  regarding  the  colonists  not  as  loyal  Englishmen, 
but  as  rebels  against  their  lawful  king,  James  the  Second.  In 
reality  the  American  collision  had  been  in  preparation  for  years. 
"About  the  year  1685,"  wrote  the  English  visitor,  Edward 
Randolph,  "  the  French  of  Canada  encroached  upon  the  lands 
of  the  subjects  of  the  crown  of  England,  building  forts  upon 
the  heads  of  their  great  rivers,  and  extending  their  bounds, 
disturbed  the  inhabitants."  On  the  other  hand,  it  must  be  re 
membered  that  England  claimed  the  present  territory  of  New 


1 84  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  provincial  charter  of 
Massachusetts  covered  those  regions.  Thus  each  nationality 
seemed  to  the  other  to  be  trying  to  encroach,  and  each  pro 
fessed  to  be  acting  on  the  defensive.  With  this  purpose  the 
French  directly  encouraged  Indian  outbreaks.  We  now  know, 
from  the  despatches  of  Denonville,  the  French  Governor  of 
Canada,  that  he  claimed  as  his  own  merit  the  successes  of 
the  Indians ;  and  Champigny  wrote  that  he  himself  had  sup 
plied  them  with  gunpowder,  and  that  the  Indians  of  the  Chris 
tian  villages  near  Quebec  had  taken  the  leading  part. 

Unluckily  several  of  the  provinces  had  just  been  brought 
together  under  the  governorship  of  a  man  greatly  disliked  and 
distrusted,  Sir  Edmund  Andros.  In  August  this  official,  then 
newly  placed  in  power,  visited  the  Five  Nations  at  Albany  to 
secure  their  friendliness.  During  his  absence  there  were  ru 
mors  of  Indian  outbreaks  at  the  East,  and  though  he  took 
steps  to  suppress  them,  yet  nobody  trusted  him.  The  friendly 
Indians  declared  that  "the  Governor  was  a  rogue,  and  had 
hired  the  Indians  to  kill  the  English,"  and  that  the  Mohawks 
were  to  seize  Boston  in  the  spring.  This  rumor  helped  the 
revolt  of  the  people  against  Andros ;  and  after  his  overthrow 
the  garrisons  at  the  eastward  were  broken  up,  and  the  savage 
assaults  recommenced.  Cocheco,  now  Dover,  New  Hampshire, 
was  destroyed ;  Pemaquid,  a  fort  with  seven  or  eight  cannon, 
was  regularly  besieged  by  a  hundred  Christian  Indians  under 
their  priest,  Pere  Thury,  who  urged  on  the  attack,  but  would 
not  let  the  English  be  scalped  or  tortured.  From  the  begin 
ning  the  movements  of  the  French  and  Indians  were  not  im 
pulsive  outbreaks,  as  heretofore,  but  were  directed  by  a  trained 
soldier  of  fifty  years'  experience,  the  Count  de  Frontenac. 
There  were  no  soldiers  of  experience  among  the  colonists,  and 
they  fought  like  peasants  against  a  regular  army.  Yet  when, 
after  a  terrible  Indian  massacre  at  Schenectady,  a  Congress  of 
delegates  was  held  at  New  York,  in  May,  1690,  they  daringly 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'  WAR.  185 

planned  an  attack  on  the  two  strongholds,  Quebec  and  Mont 
real.  Winthrop  of  Connecticut  was  to  take  Montreal  by  a  land 
expedition,  and  Sir  William  Phips,  of  Massachusetts  —  a  rough 
sailor  who  had  captured  Port  Royal — was  sent  by  water  with 
more  than  two  thousand  men  against  Quebec,  an  almost  im 
pregnable  fortress  manned  by  nearly  three  thousand.  Both  en 
terprises  failed,  and  the  Baron  La  Hontan  wrote  of  Phips — 
in  the  English  edition  of  his  letters  —  that  he  could  not  have 
served  the  French  better  had  he  stood  still  with  his  hands  in 
his  pockets.  The  colonies  were  impoverished  by  these  hopeless 
efforts,  and  the  Puritans  attributed  their  failure  to  "the  frown 
of  God."  The  Indians  made  fresh  attacks  at  Pentucket  (Hav- 
erhill)  and  elsewhere ;  but  the  Peace  of  Ryswick  (September  20, 
169.7)  stopped  the  war  for  a  time,  and  provided  that  the  Ameri 
can  boundaries  of  France  and  England  should  remain  the  same. 

A  few  more  years  brought  new  hostilities  (May  4,  1702), 
when  England  declared  war  against  France  and  Spain.  This 
was  called  in  Europe  "  The  War  of  the  Spanish  Succession," 
but  in  America  simply  "  Queen  Anne's  War."  The  Five 
Nations  were  now  strictly  neutral,  so  that  New  York  was 
spared,  and  the  force  of  the  war  fell  on  the  New  England 
settlements.  The  Eastern  Indians  promised  equal  neutrality, 
and  one  of  their  chiefs  said,  "  The  sun  is  not  more  distant 
from  the  earth  than  our  thoughts  from  war."  But  they  joined 
in  the  war  just  the  same,  and  the  Deerfield  (Massachusetts) 
massacre,  with  the  captivity  of  Rev.  John  Williams,  roused  the 
terror  of  all  the  colonists.  Traces  of  that  attack,  in  the  form 
of  tomahawk  strokes  upon  doors,  are  still  to  be  seen  in  Deer- 
field.  The  Governor  of  Massachusetts  was  distrusted ;  he 
tried  in  vain  to  take  the  small  fort  of  Port  Royal  in  Nova 
Scotia — "  the  hornets'  nest,"  as  it  was  called  ;  but  it  was  finally 
taken  in  1710,  and  its  name  was  changed  to  Annapolis  Royal, 
afterwards  Annapolis,  in  honor  of  the  Queen. 

The  year  after,  a  great  expedition  was  sent  from  England 


1  86  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

by  St.  John,  afterwards  Lord  Bolingbroke,  to  effect  the  con 
quest  of  Canada.  Fifteen  ships  of  war,  with  five  regiments  of 
Marlborough's  veterans,  reached  Boston  in  June,  1711.  Pro- 
vincial  troops  went  from  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  as  well 
as  New  England,  and  there  were  eight  hundred  Iroquois  war 
riors.  St.  John  wrote,  "  I  believe  you  may  depend  upon  our 
being,  at  this  time,  the  masters  of  all  North  America."  "  On 
the  contrary,  they  did  not  become  masters  of  an  inch  of 
ground  ;  the  expedition  utterly  failed,  mainly  through  the  in- 
competency  of  the  commander,  Admiral  Sir  Hovenden  Walk 
er  ;  eight  ships  were  wrecked,  eight  hundred  and  eighty-four 
men  were  drowned,  and  fleet  and  land-forces  retreated.  In 
April,  1713,  the  war  nominally  closed  with  the  Peace  of 
Utrecht,  which  gave  to  England  Hudson  Bay,  Newfoundland, 
and  Acadia  —  the  last  so  poorly  defined  as  to  lead  to  much 
trouble  at  a  later  day. 

But  in  Maine  the  Indian  disturbances  still  went  on.  New 
forts  were  built  by  the  colonists,  and  there  were  new  attacks 
by  the  Abenaki  tribe.  Among  these  the  most  conspicuous 
figure  was  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  Jesuit  priest  Pere 
Rasle,  who  had  collected  a  village  of  "  praying  Indians  "  at 
Norridgewock,  and  had  trained  a  band  of  forty  young  men 
to  assist,  wearing  cassock  and  surplice,  in  the  services  of  the 


FAC-SIMILE   FROM   MS.  OF    FATHER   RASLE'S   ABENAKI  GLOSSARY. 

Translation  :  "  Having  been  for  a  year  among  the  savages,  I  begin  to  arrange  in 
order  in  the  manner  of  a  dictionary  the  words  that  I  learn." 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS^   WAR.  1 87 

Church.  There  is  in  the  Harvard  College  Library  a  MS. 
glossary  of  the  Abenaki  language  in  his  handwriting.  His 
whole  career  was  one  of  picturesque  self-devotion;  but  he 
belonged  emphatically  to  the  Church  militant,  and  was  in  con 
stant  communication  with  the  French  Governor  of  Canada. 
His  settlement  was  the  head-quarters  for  all  attacks  upon  the 
English  colonists,  and  was  finally  broken  up  and  annihilated 
by  them  on  August  23,  1724.  With  him  disappeared  the  Jes 
uit  missions  in  New  England,  though  there  were  scattering 
hostilities  some  time  longer.  On  December  15,  1725,  the  Abe 
naki  chiefs  signed  at  Boston  a  treaty  of  peace,  which  is  still 
preserved  in  the  Massachusetts  archives,  and  this  compact  was 
long  maintained. 

Nineteen  years  of  comparative  peace  now  followed, — by  far 
the  longest  interval  during  the  contest  of  a  century.  In  1744 
came  another  war  between  England  and  France,  known  in  Eu 
rope  as  "  the  War  of  the  Austrian  Succession,"  but  in  America 
as  "  King  George's  War,"  or  as  "  Governor  Shirley's  War."  Its 
chief  event  was  that  which  was  the  great  military  surprise  of 
that  century,  both  at  home  and  abroad — the -capture  of  Louis- 
burg  in  1745.  Hawthorne,  in  one  of  his  early  papers,  has 
given  a  most  graphic  picture  of  the  whole  occurrence.  A  fleet 
sailed  from  Boston  under  Sir  Wrilliam  Pepperrell,  who  led  three 
thousand  men  to  attack  a  stronghold  which  had  been  called 

o 

the  Gibraltar  of  America,  and  whose  fortifications  had  cost  five 
million  dollars.  The  \valls  were  twenty  or  thirty  feet  high,  and 
forty  feet  thick ;  they  were  surrounded  by  a  ditch  eighty  feet 
wide,  and  defended  by  two  hundred  and  forty- three  pieces  of 
artillery,  against  which  the  assailants  had  eighteen  cannon  and 
three  mortars.  It  seemed  an  enterprise  as  hopeless  as  that  of 
Sir  William  Phips  against  Quebec,  and  yet  it  succeeded.  To 
the  amazement  of  all,  the  fortress  surrendered  after  a  siege  of 
six  weeks.  The  pious  Puritans  believed  it  a  judgment  of  God 
upon  the  Roman  Catholics,  and  held  with  delight  a  Protestant 


i88 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


service  in  the  chapel   of  the  fort.     When   they  returned  they 
brought  with  them  an  iron  cross  from  the  chapel,  and  it  now 


SIR   WILLIAM    PEPPERRELL. 

[From  the  painting  in  the  Essex  Institute.] 


stands  above  the  main  entrance  to  the  Harvard  College  library. 
But  three  years  after  (1748)  the  Peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  pro 
vided  for  the  mutual  restoration  of  all  conquests,  and  Louis- 
burg  was  given  back  to  the  French. 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'   WAR.  189 

Every  step  in  this  prolonged  war  taught  the  colonists  the 
need  of  uniting.  All  the  New  England  colonies  had  been 
represented  at  Louisburg  by  men,  and  New  York,  New  Jersey, 
and  Pennsylvania  by  money.  New  hostilities  taking  place  in 
Nova  Scotia  and  along  the  Ohio,  what  is  called  the  "  Old 
French  War,"  or  "  French  and  Indian  War,"  began,  and  at  its 
very  outset  a  convention  of  delegates  met  in  Albany,  coming 
from  New  England,  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland. 
It  was  called  by  advice  of  the  British  ministry,  and  a  commit 
tee  of  one  from  each  colony  was  appointed  to  consider  a 
plan  of  union.  No  successful  plan  followed,  and  a  sarcastic 
Mohawk  chief  said  to  the  colonists :  "  You  desired  us  to  open 
our  minds  and  hearts  to  you.  Look  at  the  French ;  they  are 
men ;  they  are  fortifying  everywhere.  But,  we  are  ashamed 
to  say  it,  you  are  like  women,  without  any  fortifications.  It 
is  but  one  step  from  Canada  hither,  and  the  French  may  eas 
ily  come  and  turn  you  out-of-doors." 

For  the  eight  years  following  it  seemed  more  than  likely 
that  the  description  would  be  fulfilled.  The  French  kept  res 
olutely  at  work,  building  forts  and  establishing  garrisons,  until 
they  had  a  chain  of  sixty  that  reached  from  Quebec  to  New 
Orleans.  Vainly  did  the  Governor  of  Virginia  send  Washing 
ton,  then  a  youth  of  twenty -one,  to  remonstrate  with  the 
French  officers  in  1753;  he  traversed  the  unbroken  forests 
and  crossed  freezing  rivers  on  rafts  of  ice ;  but  to  no  result, 
except  that  it  all  contributed  to  the  training  of  the  future 
general.  The  English  colonists  achieved  some  easy  successes 
— as  in  dispersing  and  removing  the  so-called  "  neutral  French 
in  Acadia" — a  people  whose  neutrality,  though  guaranteed  by 
treaty,  did  not  prevent  them  from  constantly  recruiting  the 
enemy's  forces,  and  who  were  as  inconvenient  for  neighbors  as 
they  are  now  picturesque  in  history.  But  when  Braddock 
came  with  an  army  of  English  veterans  to  lead  the  colonial 
force  he  was  ignominiously  defeated,  near  Pittsburgh,  Pennsyl- 


190 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


vania  (July  9,  1755),  and  Washington  and  the  provincial  troops 
had  to  cover  his  retreat.  All  along  the  lipe  of  the  colonies 
the  Indian  attacks  only  grew  more  terrible,  the  French  telling 

the  natives  that  the 
time  had  now  come  to 
drive  the  English  from 
the  soil.  In  Virgin 
ia,  Washington  wrote 
that  the  "  supplicating 
tears  of  women  and 
the  moving  petitions 
of  the  men  melted 
him  with  deadly  sor 
row."  Farther  north, 
the  French  General 
Montcalm  took  fort  af 
ter  fort  with  apparent 
ease,  and  then  the  gar 
risons,  as  at  Fort  Will 
iam  Henry,  were  mur 
dered  by  his  Indians. 
"  For  God's  sake," 

wrote  the  officer  in  command  at  Albany,  to  the  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  "  exert  yourself  to  save  a  province  !  New  York 
itself  may  fall.  Save  a  country !  Prevent  the  downfall  of  the 
British  government !"  Dr.  Jeremy  Belknap,  whom  Bryant  de 
clares  to  have  been  the  first  person  who  made  American  his 
tory  attractive,  thus  summed  up  the  gloomy  situation  in  the 
spring  of  1757:  "The  great  expense,  the  frequent  disappoint 
ments,  the  loss  of  men,  of  forts,  of  stores,  was  very  discourag 
ing.  The  enemy's  country  was  filled  with  prisoners  and  scalps, 
private  plunder  and  public  stores,  and  provisions  which  our 
people,  as  beasts  of  burden,  had  conveyed  to  them.  These 
reflections  were  the  dismal  accompaniment  of  the  winter." 


LOUIS   JOSEPH    MONTCALM. 


THE  HUNDRED    YEARS'   WAR. 


What  turned  the  scale  was  the  energy  of  the  new  prime- 
minister,  William  Pitt.  Under  his  inspiration  the  colonies 
raised  men  "  like  magic,"  we  are  told ;  the  home  government 
furnishing  arms,  equip 
ments,  and  supplies ;  the 
colonies  organizing,  uni 
forming,  and  paying  the 
troops,  with  a  prospect  of 
reimbursement.  Events 
followed  in  quick  succes 
sion.  Abercrombie  failed 
at  Ticonderoga,  but  Brad- 
street  took  Fort  Fronte- 
nac ;  Prideaux  took  Ni 
agara  ;  Louisburg,  Crown 
Point,  and  even  Ticon 
deroga  itself  fell.  Que 
bec  was  taken  in  1759, 
Wolfe,  the  victor,  and 
Montcalm,  the  defeated, 
dying  alike  almost  in  the 
hour  when  the  battle  was 
decided.  Montreal  soon 

followed;  and  in  1763  the  Peace  of  Paris  surrendered  Canada 
to  the  English,  with  nearly  all  the  French  possessions  east 
of  the  Mississippi.  France  had  already  given  up  to  Spain 
all  her  claims  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  her  brilliant  career 
as  an  American  power  was  over.  With  her  the  Indian  tribes 
were  also  quelled,  except  that  the  brief  conspiracy  of  Pontiac 
came  and  went  like  the  last  flicker  of  an  expiring  candle ; 
then  the  flame  vanished,  and  the  Hundred  Years'  War  was  at 
an  end. 


JAMES    WOLFE. 


VIII. 

THE    SECOND    GENERATION    OF   ENGLISHMEN  IN 

AMERICA. 

WHEN  a  modern  American  makes  a  pilgrimage,  as  I  have 
done,  to  the  English  village  church  at  whose  altars  his 
ancestors  once  ministered,  he  brings  away  a  feeling  of  renewed 
wonder  at  the  depth  of  conviction  which  led  the  Puiitan  clergy 
to  forsake  their  early  homes.  The  exquisitely  peaceful  features 
of  the  English  rural  landscape — fhe  old  Norman  church,  half 
ruined,  and  in  this  particular  case  restored  by  aid  of  the  Amer 
ican  descendants  of  that  high-minded  emigrant ;  the  old  burial- 
ground  that  surrounds  it,  a  haunt  of  such  peace  as  to  make 
death  seem  doubly  restful;  the  ancestral  oaks;  the  rooks  that 
soar  above  them ;  the  flocks  of  sheep  drifting  noiselessly  among 
the  ancient  gravestones — all  speak  of  such  tranquillity  as  the 
eager  American  must  cross  the  Atlantic  to  obtain.  No  Eng 
lishman  feels  these  things  as  the  American  feels  them;  the  an 
tiquity,  as  Hawthorne  says,  is  our  novelty.  But  beyond  all  the 
charm  of  the  associations  this  thought  always  recurs  —  what 
love  of  their  convictions,  what  devotion  to  their  own  faith,  must 
have  been  needed  to  drive  the  educated  Puritan  clergymen  from 
such  delicious  retreats  to  encounter  the  ocean,  the  forest,  and 
the  Indians! 

Yet  there  was  in  the  early  emigration  to  every  American 
colony  quite  another  admixture  than  that  of  learning  and  re 
finement  ;  a  sturdy  yeoman  element,  led  by  the  desire  to  better 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      193 

its  condition  and  create  a  new  religious  world  around  it;  and 
an  adventurous  element,  wishing  for  new  excitements.  The 
popular  opinion  of  that  period  did  not  leave  these  considera 
tions  out  of  sight,  as  may  be  seen  by  this  London  street  bal 
lad  of  1640,  describing  the  emigration: 

''  Our  company  we  feare  not,  there  goes  my  Cosen  Hanna, 
And  Ruben  doe  perswade  to  goe  his  sister  faire   Susanna, 
Wth  Abigail  and  Lidia,  and  Ruth  noe  doubt  comes  after, 
And  Sara  kinde  will  not  stay  behincle  my  Cosen   Constance  dafter — 
Then  for  the  truth's  sake  goe. 

""  Nay  Tom  Tyler  is  p'pared,  and  ye  Smith  as  black  as  a  cole, 
And  Ralph  Cobbler  too  wth  us  will  goe  for  he  regards  his  soale, 
And  the  weaver  honest  Lyman,  \vth  Prudence  Jacobs  daughter, 
And  Agatha  and  Barrbarra  professeth  to  come  after — 
Then  for  the  truth's  sake  goe." 

There  were  also  traces,  in  the  emigration,  of  that  love  of 
wandering,  of  athletic  sports  and  woodcraft,  that  still  sends 
young  men  of  English  race  to  the  far  corners  of  the  earth. 
In  the  Virginia  colonization  this  element  was  large,  but  it  also 
entered  into  the  composition  of  the  Northern  colonies.  The 
sister  of  Governor  Winthrop  wrote  from  England,  in  1637,  of 
her  son,  afterwards  Sir  George  Downing,  that  the  boy  was 
anxious  to  go  to  New  England;  and  she  spoke  of  the  hazard 
that  he  was  in  "  by  reson  of  both  his  father's  and  his  owne 
strange  inclination  to  the  plantation  sports."  Upham  accord 
ingly  describes  this  same  youth  in  Harvard  College,  where  he 
graduated  in  1642,  as  shooting  birds  in  the  wild  woods  of  Sa 
lem,  and  setting  duck-decoys  in  the  ponds.  Life  in  the  earlier 
days  of  the  emigration  was  essentially  a  border  life,  a  forest 
life,  a  frontier  life  —  differing  from  such  life  in  Australia  or 
Colorado  mainly  in  one  wild  dream  which  certainly  added  to 
its  romance  —  the  dream  that  Satan  still  ruled  the  forest,  and 
that  the  Indians  were  his  agents. 

Whatever  else  may  be  said  of  the  Puritan  emigration,  it 

13 


194  HISTORY  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 

represented  socially  and  intellectually  much  of  what  was  best 
in  the  mother  country.  Men  whose  life  in  England  would  have 
been  that  of  the  higher  class  of  gentry  might  have  been  seen 
in  New  England  taking  with  their  own  hands  from  the  barrel 
their  last  measure  of  corn,  and  perhaps  interrupted  by  the  sight 
of  a  vessel  arriving  in  the  harbor  with  supplies.  These  men5 
who  ploughed  their  own  fields  and  shot  their  own  venison, 
were  men  who  had  paced  the  halls  of  Emanuel  College  at 
Cambridge,  who  quoted  Seneca  in  their  journals  of  travel,  and 
who  brought  with  them  books  of  classic  literature  among  their 
works  of  theology.  The  library  bequeathed  by  the  Rev.  John 
Harvard  to  the  infant  college  at  Cambridge  included  Homer, 
Pliny,  Sallust,  Terence,  Juvenal,  and  Horace.  The  library 
bought  by  the  commissioners  from  the  Rev.  Mr.  Welde,  for  the 
Rev.  Mr.  Eliot,  had  in  it  Plutarch's  Morals  and  the  plays  of 
Aristophanes.  In  its  early  poverty  the  colony  voted  ^400  to 
found  Harvard  College,  and  that  institution  had  for  its  second 
president  a  man  so  learned,  after  the  fashion  of  those  days,  that 
he  had  the  Hebrew  Bible  read  to  the  students  in  the  morning, 
and  the  Greek  Testament  in  the  afternoon,  commenting  on  both 
extemporaneously  in  Latin.  The  curriculum  of  the  institution 
was  undoubtedly  devised  rather  with  a  view  to  making  learned 
theologians  than  elegant  men  of  letters  —  thus  much  may  be 
conceded  to  Mr.  Matthew  Arnold — but  this  was  quite  as  much 
the  case,  as  Mr.  Mullinger  has  shown,  in  the  English  Cam 
bridge  of  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  year  1650  may  be  roughly  taken  as  closing  the  first 
generation  of  the  American  colonists.  Virginia  had  then  been 
settled  forty-three  years,  New  York  thirty-six,  Plymouth  thirty, 
Massachusetts  Bay  twenty-two,  Maryland  nineteen,  Connecticut 
seventeen,  Rhode  Island  fourteen,  New  Haven  twelve,  and  Del 
aware  twelve.  A  variety  of  industries  had  already  been  intro 
duced,  especially  in  the  New  England  colonies.  Boat-building 
had  there  begun,  according  to  Colonel  C.  D.  Wright,  in  1624: 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      195 

brick-making,  tanning,  and  windmills  were  introduced  in  1629; 
shoemaking  and  saw-mills  in  1635;  cloth  mills  in  1638;  printing 
the  year  after;  and  iron  foundries  in  1644.  In  Virginia  the 
colony  had  come  near  to  extinction  in  1624,  and  had  revived 
under  wholly  new  leadership.  In  New  England,  Brewster,  Win- 
throp,  Higginson,  Skelton,  Shepard,  and  Hooker  had  all  died ; 
Bradford,  Endicott,  Standish,  Winslow,  Eliot,  and  Roger  Will 
iams  were  still  living,  but  past  their  prime.  Church  and  State 
were  already  beginning  to  be  possessed  by  a  younger  race,  who 
had  either  been  born  in  America  or  been  brought  as  young 
children  to  its  shores.  In  this  coming  race,  also,  the  traditions 
of  learning  prevailed ;  the  reading  of  Cotton  Mather,  for  in 
stance,  was  as  marvellous  as  his  powers  of  memory.  When  he 
entered  Harvard  College,  at  eleven,  he  had  read  Cicero,  Ter 
ence,  Ovid,  Virgil,  and  the  Greek  Testament ;  wrote  Latin  with 
ease ;  was  reading  Homer,  and  had  begun  the  Hebrew  gram 
mar.  But  the  influences  around  these  men  were  stern  and 
even  gloomy,  though  tempered  by  scholarship,  by  the  sweet 
charities  of  home,  and  by  some  semblance  of  relaxation.  We  can 
hardly  say  that  there  was  nothing  but  sternness  when  we  find 
the  Rev.  Peter  Thacher  at  Barnstable,  Massachusetts — a  man 
of  high  standing  in  the  churches — mitigating  the  care  of  souls, 
in  1679,  by  the  erection  of  a  private  nine-pin  alley  on  his  own 
premises.  Still  there  was  for  a  time  a  distinct  deepening  of 
shadow  around  the  lives  of  the  Puritans,  whether  in  the  North 
ern  or  Southern  colonies,  after  they  were  left  wholly  to  them 
selves  upon  the  soil  of  the  New  World.  The  persecutions  and 
the  delusions  belong  generally  to  this  later  epoch.  In  the 
earlier  colonial  period  there  would  have  been  no  time  for  them, 
and  hardly  any  inclination.  In  the  later  or  provincial  period 
society  was  undergoing  a  change,  and  wealth  and  aristocratic 
ways  of  living  were  being  introduced.  But  it  was  in  the  inter 
mediate  time  that  religious  rigor  had  its  height. 

Modern  men  habitually  exaggerate  the  difference  between 


196 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


themselves  and  the  Puritans.  The  points  of  difference  are  so 
great  and  so  picturesque,  we  forget  that  the  points  of;fese;m- 
blance,  after  all,  outweigh  them.  We  seem  more  remote  from 


COTTON    MATHER. 


them  than  is  really  the  case,  because  we  dwell  too  much  on 
secondary  matters  —  a  garment,  a  phrase,  a  form  of  service. 
Theologian  and  historian  are  alike  overcome  by  this ;  as  soon 
as  they  touch  the  Puritans  all  is  sombre,  there  is  no  sunshine, 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      197 

no  bird  sings.  Yet  the  birds  filled  the  woods  with  their  music 
then  as  now ;  children  played ;  mothers  talked  pretty  nonsense 
to  their  babies ;  Governor  Winthrop  wrote  tender  messages  to 
his  third  wife  in  a  way  that  could  only  have  come  of  long  and 
reiterated  practice.  We  cannot  associate  a  gloomy  tempera 
ment  with  Miles  Standish's  doughty  defiances,  or  with  Francis 
Higginson's  assertion  that  "a  draught  of  New  England  air  is 
better  than  a  flagon  of  Old  English  ale."  Their  lives,  like  all 
lives,  were  tempered  and  moulded  by  much  that  was  quite  apart 
from  theology — hard  work  in  the  woods,  fights  with  the  Indians, 
and  less  perilous  field-sports.  They  were  unlike  modern  men 
when  they  \vere  at  church,  but  not  so  unlike  when  they  went  on 
a  bear-hunt. 

In  order  to  understand  the  course  of  Puritan  life  in  America, 
we  must  bear  in  mind  that  the  first-comers  in  the  most  strictly 
Puritan  colonies  were  more  and  not  less  liberal  than  their  im 
mediate  descendants.  The  Plymouth  colony  was  more  tolerant 
than  the  later  colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  the  first  church 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony  was  freer  than  those  which 
followed  it.  The  covenant  drawn  up  for  this  Salem  church  in 
1629  has  seldom  been  surpassed  in  benignant  comprehensive 
ness  ;  it  is  thought  that  the  following  words  constituted  the 
whole  of  it :  "  We  covenant  with  the  Lord  and  one  with  anoth 
er,  and  do  bind  ourselves,  in  the  presence  of  God,  to  walk  to 
gether  in  all  His  ways,  according  as  He  is  pleased  to  reveal 
Himself  to  us  in  His  blessed  word  of  truth."  This  was  drawn 
up,  according  to  Mather,  by  the  first  minister  of  Salem ;  and 
even  when  this  covenant  was  enlarged  into  a  confession  of  faith 
by  his  son  and  successor,  some  years  later,  it  nevertheless  re 
mained  more  liberal  than  many  later  covenants.  The  trouble 
was  that  the  horizon  for  a  time  narrowed  instead  of  widened. 
The  isolation  and  privations  of  the  colonial  life  produced  their 
inevitable  effect,  and  this  tendency  grew  as  the  new  generation 
developed. 


198  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

But  it  must  be  noticed  that  even  this  early  liberality  never 
went  so  far  as  to  lay  down  any  high-sounding  general  principles 
of  religious  liberty,  or  to  announce  that  as  the  corner-stone  of 
the  new  enterprise.  Here  it  is  that  great  and  constant  injustice 
is  done  ; — in  attributing  to  these  Puritans  a  principle  of  toleration 
which  they  never  set  up,  and  then  reproaching  them  with  being 
false  to  it.  Even  Mr.  Francis  Parkman,  who  seems  to  me  to  be, 
within  his  own  domain,  unquestionably  the  first  of  American 
historians,  loses  his  habit  of  justice  when  he  quits  his  French 
men  and  his  Indians  and  deals  with  the  Puritans.  "  At  the  out 
set,"  he  says,  in  his  "  Pioneers  of  France,"  "  New  England  was 
unfaithful  to  the  principles  of  her  existence.  Seldom  has  relig 
ious  toleration  assumed  a  form  more  oppressive  than  among 
the  Puritan  exiles.  New  England  Protestantism  appealed  to 
liberty ;  then  closed  the  doors  against  her.  On  a  stock  of  free 
dom  she  grafted  a  scion  of  despotism."  Surely  this  is  the  old 
misstatement  often  made,  often  refuted.  When  were  those  col 
onists  unfaithful  to  their  own  principle  ?  When  did  they  appeal 
to  liberty?  They  appealed  to  truth.  It  would  have  been  far 
better  and  nobler  had  they  aimed  at  both,  but  in  this  imperfect 
world  we  have  often  to  praise  and  venerate  men  for  a  single 
virtue.  Anything  but  the  largest  toleration  would  have  been 
inconsistency  in  Roger  Williams,  or  perhaps — for  this  is  less 
clearly  established — in  Lord  Baltimore;  but  in  order  to  show 
that  the  Puritans  were  false  to  religious  liberty  it  must  be 
shown  that  they  had  proclaimed  it.  On  the  contrary,  what  they 
sought  to  proclaim  was  religious  truth.  They  lost  the  expan 
sive  influence  of  freedom,  but  they  gained  the  propelling  force 
of  a  high  though  gloomy  faith.  They  lost  the  variety  that 
exists  in  a  liberal  community  where  each  man  has  his  own 
opinion,  but  they  gained  the  concentrated  power  of  a  homo 
geneous  and  well-ordered  people. 

There  are  but  two  of  the  early  colonies  of  which  the   claim 
can  be  seriously  made  that  they  were  founded  on  any  principle 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      199 

of  religious  freedom.  These  two  are  Rhode  Island  and  Mary 
land.  It  was  said  of  the  first  by  Roger  Williams,  its  spiritual 
founder,  that  "  a  permission  of  the  most  paganish,  Jewish,  Turk 
ish,  or  anti-Christian  conscience  "  should  be  there  granted  "  to 
all  men  of  all  nations  and  countries."  Accordingly,  the  colony 
afforded  such  shelter  on  a  very  wide  scale.  It  received  Anne 
Hutchinson  after  she  had  set  the  State  as  well  as  Church  in  a 
turmoil  at  Boston,  and  had  made  popular  elections  turn  on  her 
•opinions.  It  not  only  sheltered  but  gave  birth  to  Jemima  Wil 
kinson,  prophetess  of  the  "  Cumberland  Zealots,"  who  might,  un 
der  the  stimulus  of  a  less  tolerant  community,  have  expanded 
into  a  Joanna  Southcote  or  a  Mother  Ann  Lee.  It  protected 
Samuel  Gorton,  a  man  of  the  Savonarola  temperament,  of  whom 
his  last  surviving  disciple  said,  in  1771,  "My  master  wrote  in 
heaven,  and  none  can  understand  his  writings  but  those  who 
live  in  heaven  while  on  earth."  It  cost  such  an  effort  to  assimi 
late  these  exciting  ingredients  that  Roger  Williams  described 
Gorton,  in  1640,  as  "bewitching  and  bemadding  poor  Provi 
dence,"  and  the  Grand  Jury  of  Portsmouth,  R.  I.,  was  compelled 
to  indict  him  as  a  nuisance  in  the  same  year,  on  this  count, 
among  others,  "  that  Samuel  Gorton  contumeliously  reproached 
the  magistrates,  calling  them  Just -asses."  Nevertheless,  all 
these,  and  such  as  these,  were  at  last  disarmed  and  made  harm 
less  by  the  wise  policy  of  Rhode  Island,  guided  by  Roger  Will 
iams,  after  he  had  outgrown  the  superfluous  antagonisms  of  his 
youth,  and  had  learned  to  be  conciliatory  in  action  as  well  as 
comprehensive  in  doctrine.  Yet  even  he  had  so  much  to  un 
dergo  in  keeping  the  peace  with  all  these  heterogeneous  materi 
als  that  he  recoiled  at  last  from  "  such  an  infinite  liberty  of  con 
science,"  and  declared  that  in  the  case  of  Quakers  "  a  due  and 
moderate  restraint  and  punishment  of  these  incivilities  "  was  not 
only  no  persecution,  but  was  "  a  duty  and  command  of  God." 

Maryland    has    shared   with    Rhode    Island    the    honor    of 
having  established  religious  freedom,  and  this  claim  is  largely 


200  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

based  upon  the   noble  decree  passed  by  its  General  Assembly 
in  1649 : 

"  No  person  whatsoever  in  this  province  professing  to  believe  in  Jesus 
Christ  shall  from  henceforth  be  any  way  troubled  or  molested  for  his  or  her 
religion,  or  in  the  free  exercise  thereof,  or  any  way  compelled  to  the  belief  or 
exercise  of  any  other  religion  against  his  or  her  consent." 

But  it  is  never  hard  to  evade  a  statute  that  seems  to  secure 
religious  liberty,  and  this  decree  did  not  prevent  the  Maryland 
colony  from  afterwards  enacting  that  if  any  person  should  deny 
the  Holy  Trinity  he  should  first  be  bored  through  the  tongue 
and  fined  or  imprisoned ;  that  for  the  second  offence  he  should 
be  branded  as  a  blasphemer,  the  letter  "  B  "  being  stamped  on 
his  forehead ;  and  for  the  third  offence  should  die.  This  was 
certainly  a  very  limited  toleration ;  and  granting  that  it  has  a 
partial  value,  it  remains  an  interesting  question  who  secured  it 
Cardinal  Manning  and  others  have  claimed  this  measure  of  tol 
eration  as  due  to  the  Roman  Catholics,  but  Mr.  E,  D.  Neill  has 
conclusively  shown  that  the  Roman  Catholic  element  was  origi 
nally  much  smaller  than  was  supposed,  that  the  "  two  hundred 
Catholic  gentlemen  "  usually  claimed  as  founding  the  colony 
were  really  some  twenty  gentlemen  and  three  hundred  laboring 
men ;  that  of  the  latter  twelve  died  on  shipboard,  of  whom  only 
two  confessed  to  the  priests,  thus  giving  a  clew  to  the  probable 
opinions  of  the  rest ;  and  that  of  the  Assembly  which  passed 
the  resolutions  the  majority  were  Protestants,  and  even  Puri 
tans.  But  granting  to  Maryland  a  place  next  to  Rhode  Island 
in  religious  freedom,  she  paid,  like  that  other  colony,  what  was 
then  the  penalty  of  freedom,  and  I  must  dwell  a  moment  on  this. 

In  those  days  religious  liberty  brought  a  heterogeneous  and 
often  reckless  population;  it  usually  involved  the  absence  of  a 
highly  educated  ministry ;  and  this  implied  the  want  of  a  set 
tled  system  of  education,  and  of  an  elevated  standard  of  public 
duty.  These  deficiencies  left  both  in  Rhode  Island  and  in 
Maryland  certain  results  which  are  apparent  to  this  day.  There 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      2OI 

is  nothing  more  extraordinary  in  the  Massachusetts  and  Con 
necticut  colonies  than  the  promptness  with  which  they  entered 
on  the  work  of  popular  instruction.  These  little  communities, 
just  struggling  for  existence,  marked  out  an  educational  system 
which  had  then  hardly  a  parallel  in  the  European  world.  In 
the  Massachusetts  Bay  colony,  Salem  had  a  free  school  in  1640, 
Boston  in  1642,  or  earlier,  Cambridge  about  the  same  time,  and 
the  State,  in  1647,  marked  out  an  elaborate  system  of  common 
and  grammar  schools  for  every  township — a  system  then  with 
out  a  precedent,  so  far  as  I  know,  in  Europe.  Thus  ran  the 
essential  sentences  of  this  noble  document,  held  up  to  the  ad 
miration  of  all  England  by  Lord  Macaulay  in  Parliament: 

.  .  .  "  Yl  learning  may  not  be  buried  in  ye  grave  of  or  fathrs  in  ye  church 
and  comonwealth,  the  Lord  assisting  or  endeavors — It  is  therefore  ordred,  yi 
evry  township  in  this  Jurisdiction,  aftr  ye  Lord  heth  increased  ym  to  ye  number 
of  50  household1"8,  shall  then  forthwth  appoint  one  wthin  their  towne  to  teach  all 
such  children  as  shall  resort  to  him  to  write  and  reade ;  .  .  .  and  it  is  furthr 
ordered,  yl  where  any  towne  shall  increase  to  ye  numbr  of  100  families  or 
househould3,  they  shall  set  up  a  gramer  schoole,  ye  mr  thereof  being  able  to 
instruct  youth  so  farr  as  they  may  be  fited  for  ye  university." 

The  printing-press  came  with  these  schools,  or  before  them, 
and  was  actively  employed,  and  it  is  impossible  not  to  recog 
nize  the  contrast  between  such  institutions  and  the  spirit  of 
that  Governor  of  Virginia  (Berkeley)  who  said,  a  quarter  of  a 
century  later,  "  We  have  no  free  schools  nor  printing,  and  I 
hope  shall  not  have  these  hundred  years."  In  Maryland,  con 
victs  and  indented  servants  were  sometimes  advertised  for  sale 
as  teachers  at  an  early  day,  and  there  was  no  public  system 
until  1728.  In  Rhode  Island,  Newport  had  a  public-school  in 
1640,  but  it  apparently  lasted  but  a  year  or  two,  nor  was  there 
a  general  system  till  the  year  1800.  These  contrasts  are  men 
tioned  for  one  sole  purpose :  to  show  that  no  single  community 
unites  all  virtues,  and  that  it  was  at  that  period  very  hard  for 
religious  liberality  and  a  good  school  system  to  exist  together. 

There  was  a  similar  irregularity  among  the  colonies  in  the 


202  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

number  of  university- trained  men.  Professor  F.  B.  Dexter 
has  shown  that  no  less  than  sixty  such  men  joined  the  Massa 
chusetts  Bay  colony  within  ten  years  of  its  origin,  while  after 
seventeen  years  of  separate  existence  the  Virginia  colony  held 
but  two  university  men,  Rev.  Hant  Wyatt  and  Dr.  Pott ;  and 
Rhode  Island  had  also  but  two  in  its  early  days,  Roger  Will 
iams  and  the  recluse  William  Blaxton.  No  one  has  more 
fully  recognized  the  "  heavy  price  paid  "  for  this  "  great  cup  of 
liberty."  in  Rhode  Island  than  her  ablest  scholar,  Professor  Di- 
man,  who  employs  precisely  these  phrases  to  describe  it  in  his 
Bristol  address ;  and  who  fearlessly  points  out  how  much  that 
State  lost,  even  while  she  gained  something,  by  the  absence  of 
that  rigorous  sway  and  that  lofty  public  standard  which  were 
associated  with  the  stern  rule  of  the  Puritan  clergy. 

In  all  the  early  colonies,  unless  we  except  Rhode  Island,  the 
Puritan  spirit  made  itself  distinctly  felt,  and  religious  persecu 
tion  widely  prevailed.  Even  in  Maryland,  as  has  been  shown, 
the  laws  imposed  branding  and  boring  through  the  tongue  as 
a  penalty  for  certain  opinions.  In  Virginia  those  who  refused 
to  attend  the  Established  Church  must  pay  200  pounds  of  to 
bacco  for  the  first  offence,  500  for  the  second,  and  incur  ban 
ishment  for  the  third.  A  fine  of  5000  pounds  of  tobacco  was 
placed  upon  unauthorized  religious  meetings.  Quakers  and 
Baptists  were  whipped  or  pilloried,  and  any  ship-master  convey 
ing  Nonconformists  was  fined.  Even  so  late  as  1741,  after  per 
secution  had  virtually  ceased  in  New  England,  severe  laws  were 
passed  against  Presbyterians  in  Virginia ;  and  the  above-named 
laws  of  Maryland  were  re-enacted  in  1723.  At  an  earlier  pe 
riod,  however,  the  New  England  laws,  if  not  severer,  were  no 
doubt  more  rigorously  executed.  In  some  cases,  to  be  sure,  the 
so-called  laws  were  a  deliberate  fabrication,  as  in  the  case  of  the 
Connecticut  "  Blue  Laws,"  a  code  reprinted  to  this  day  in  the 
newspapers,  but  which  existed  only  in  the  active  and  malicious 
imagination  of  the  Tory  Dr.  Peters. 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      203 

The  spirit  of  persecution  was  strongest  in  the  New  England 
colonies,  and  chiefly  in  Massachusetts,  because  of  the  greater 
intensity  with  which  men  there  followed  out  their  convictions. 
It  was  less  manifest  in  the  banishment  of  Roger  Williams — - 
which  was,  after  all,  not  so  much  a  religious  as  a  political  trans 
action — than  in  the  Quaker  persecutions  which  took  place  be 
tween  1656  and  1660.  Whatever  minor  elements  may  have 
entered  into  the  matter,  these  were  undoubtedly  persecutions 
based  on  religious  grounds,  and  are  therefore  to  be  utterly 
condemned.  Yet  they  were  not  quite  so  bad  as  a  class  of  per 
secutions  which  had  become  familiar  in  Europe  —  forbidding 
heretics  to  leave  the  realm,  and  then  tormenting  them  if  they 
stayed.  Not  a  Quaker  ever  suffered  death  except  for  voluntary 
action ;  that  is,  for  choosing  to  stay,  or  to  return  after  banish 
ment.  To  demand  that  men  should  consent  to  be  banished 
on  pain  of  death  seems  to  us  an  outrage ;  but  it  seemed  quite 
otherwise,  we  must  remember,  to  those  who  had  already  exiled 
themselves,  in  order  to  secure  a  spot  where  they  could  worship 
in  their  own  way.  Cotton  Mather  says,  with  some  force : 

"  It  was  also  thought  that  the  very  Quakers  themselves  would  say  that  if 
they  had  got  into  a  Corner  of  the  World,  and  with  an  immense  Toyl  and 
Charge  made  a  Wilderness  habitable,  on  purpose  there  to  be  undisturbed  in 
the  Exercises  of  their  Worship,  they  would  never  bear  to  have  New-Englanders 
come  among  them  and  interrupt  their  Publick  Worship,  endeavor  to  seduce 
their  Children  from  it,  yea,  and  repeat  such  Endeavors  after  mild  Entreaties 
first,  and  then  just  Banishments,  to  oblige  their  departure." 

We  now  see  that  this  place  they  occupied  was  not  a  mere 
corner  of  the  world,  and  that  it  was  even  then  an  essential 
part  of  the  British  dominions,  and  subject  to  British  laws.  We 
can  therefore  see  that  this  was  not  the  whole  of  the  argument, 
and  the  Quakers  might  well  maintain  that  they  had  a  legal 
right  to  exercise  their  religion  in  America.  The  colonists 
seem  to  me  to  have  strained  much  too  far  the  power  given 
them  in  their  patent  to  "  encounter,  expulse,  repel,  and  resist " 


204  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

all  invaders  when  they  applied  it  to  these  unwarlike  visitors. 
Yet  the  Quakers  were  in  a  sense  invaders,  nevertheless ;  their 
latest  and  ablest  defender,  Mr.  R.  P.  Hallowell,  concedes  as 
much  when  he  entitles  his  history  "  The  Quaker  Invasion  of 
Massachusetts ;"  and  if  an  invasion  it  was,  then  Cotton  Mather's 
argumentum  ad  hominem  was  quite  to  the  point.  Had  the 
Quakers,  like  the  Moravians,  made  settlements  and  cleared  the 
forests  for  themselves,  this  argument  would  have  been  quite 
disarmed;  and  had  those  settlements  been  interfered  with  by 
the  Puritans,  the  injustice  would  have  been  far  more  glaring; 
nor  is  it  probable  that  the  Puritans  would  have  molested  such 
colonies — unless  they  happened  to  be  too  near. 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  that  the  Puritans  did  not  view 
Quakers  and  other  zealots  as  heretics  merely,  but  as  dangerous 
social  outlaws.  There  was  among  the  colonists  a  genuine  and 
natural  fear  that  if  the  tide  of  extravagant  fanaticism  once  set 
in,  it  might  culminate  in  such  atrocities  as  had  shocked  all 
Europe  while  the  Anabaptists,  under  John  of  Leyden,  were  in 
power  at  Miinster.  In  the  frenzied  and  naked  exhibitions  of 
Lydia  Wardwell  and  Deborah  Wilson  they  saw  tendencies 
which  might  end  in  uprooting  all  the  social  order  for  which 
they  were  striving,  and  might  lead  at  last  to  the  revocation 
of  their  charter.  I  differ  with  the  greatest  unwillingness  from 
my  old  friend  Mr.  John  G.  Whittier  in  his  explanation  of  a  part 
of  these  excesses.  He  thinks  that  these  naked  performances 
came  from  persons  who  were  maddened  by  seeing  the  partial 
exposure  of  Quakers  whipped  through  the  streets.  This  view, 
though  plausible,  seems  to  me  to  overlook  the  highly  wrought 
condition  of  mind  among  these  enthusiasts,  and  the  fact  that 
they  regarded  everything  as  a  symbol.  When  one  of  the  very 
ablest  of  the  Quakers,  Robert  Barclay,  walked  the  streets  of 
Aberdeen  in  sackcloth  and  ashes,  he  deemed  it  right  to  sacri 
fice  all  propriety  for  the  sake  of  a  symbolic  act ;  and  in  just 
the  same  spirit  we  find  the  Quaker  writers  of  that  period  de- 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IJV  AMERICA.      205 


A   QUAKER    EXHORTER    IN   NEW   ENGLAND. 

fending  these  personal  exposures,  not  by  Mr.  Whittier's  rea 
sons,  but  for  symbolic  ones.  In  Southey's  "  Commonplace- 
Book"  there  is  a  long  extract,  to  precisely  this  effect,  from  the 
life  of  Thomas  Story,  an  English  Friend  who  had  travelled  in 


206  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

America.  He  seems  to  have  been  a  moderate  man,  and  to 
have  condemned  some  of  the  extravagances  of  the  Ranters,  but 
gravely  argues  that  the  Quakers  might  really  have  been  com 
manded  by  God  to  exhibit  their  nakedness  "  as  a  sign." 

Whatever  provocation  the  Friends  may  have  given,  their 
persecution  is  the  darkest  blot  upon  the  history  of  the  time — 
darker  than  witchcraft,  which  was  a  disease  of  supernatural 
terror.  And  like  the  belief  in  witchcraft,  the  spirit  of  persecu 
tion  could  only  be  palliated  by  the  general  delusion  of  the  age, 
by  the  cruelty  of  the  English  legislation  against  the  Jesuits, 
which  the  Puritan  Legislature  closely  followed  as  regarded 
Quakers ;  and  in  general  by  the  attempt  to  unite  Church  and 
State,  and  to  take  the  Old  Testament  for  a  literal  modern 
statute-book.  It  must  be  remembered  that  our  horror  at  this 
intolerance  is  also  stimulated  from  time  to  time  by  certain  ex 
travagant  fabrications  which  still  appear  as  genuine  in  the 
newspapers ;  as  that  imaginary  letter  said  to  have  been  ad 
dressed  by  Cotton  Mather  to  a  Salem  clergyman  in  1682,  and 
proposing  that  a  colony  of  Quakers  be  arrested  and  sold  as 
slaves.  This  absurd  forgery  appeared  first  in  some  Pennsyl 
vania  newspaper,  accompanied  by  the  assertion  that  this  letter 
was  in  possession  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical  Society.  No 
such  paper  was  ever  known  to  that  society  ;  Cotton  Mather 
was,  at  the  time  alleged,  but  nineteen  years  old,  and  the  Quaker 
persecution  had  substantially  ceased  twenty  years  before.  But 
when  did  such  contradictions  ever  have  any  effect  on  the 
vitality  of  a  lie  ? 

The  dark  and  intense  convictions  of  Puritanism  were  seen 
at  their  highest  in  the  witchcraft  trials  —  events  which  took 
place  in  almost  every  colony  at  different  times.  The  wonder 
is  that  they  showed  themselves  so  much  less  in  America  than 
in  most  European  nations  at  the  same  period.  To  see  this  de 
lusion  in  its  most  frightful  form  we  must  go  beyond  the  Atlan 
tic  and  far  beyond  the  limits  of  English  Puritanism.  During 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      207 

its  course  30,000  victims  were  put  to  death  in  Great  Britain, 
75,000  in  France,  100,000  in  Germany,  besides  those  executed 
in  Italy,  Switzerland,  and  Sweden,  many  of  them  being  burned. 
Compared  with  this  vast  estimate,  which  I  take  from  that 
careful  historian  Mr.  W.  F.  Poole,  how  trivial  seem  the  few 
dozen  cases  to  be  found  in  our  early  colonies ;  and  yet,  as  he 
justly  remarks,  these  few  have  attracted  more  attention  from 
the  world  than  all  the  rest.  Howell,  the  letter- writer,  says, 
under  date  of  February  22,  1647:  "Within  the  compass  of  two 
years  near  upon  300  witches  were  arraigned,  and  the  larger 
part  of  them  executed,  in  Essex  and  Suffolk  [England]  only. 
Scotland  swarms  with  them  more  and  more,  and  persons  of 
good  quality  are  executed  daily."  In  a  single  Swedish  village 
threescore  and  ten  witches  were  discovered,  most  of  whom, 
including  fifteen  children,  were  executed,  besides  thirty  children 
who  were  compelled  to  "  run  the  gantlet "  and  be  lashed  on 
their  hands  once  a  week  for  a  year.  The  eminent  English 
judge  Sir  Matthew  Hale,  giving  his  charge  at  the  trial  for 
witchcraft  of  Rose  Cullender  and  Anne  Duny  in  1668 — a  trial 
which  had  great  weight  with  the  American  judges — said  that 
he  "  made  no  doubt  there  were  such  Creatures  as  Witches,  for 
the  Scriptures  affirmed  it  and  the  Wisdom  of  all  Nations  had 
provided  Laws  against  such  Persons."  The  devout  Bishop 
Hall  wrote  in  England :  "  Satan's  prevalency  in  this  Age  is 
most  clear,  in  the  marvellous  numbers  of  Witches  abiding  in 
all  places.  Now  hundreds  are  discovered  in  one  Shire."  It 
shows  that  there  was,  on  the  whole,  a  healthy  influence  exerted 
on  Puritanism  by  American  life  when  we  consider  that  the 
witchcraft  excitement  was  here  so  limited  and  so  short-lived. 

The  first  recorded  case  of  execution  for  this  offence  in  the 
colonies  is  mentioned  in  Winthrop's  journal  (March,  1646-47), 
as  occurring  at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  where  another  occurred 
in  1648,  there  being  also  one  in  Boston  that  same  year.  Nine 
more  took  place  in  Boston  and  in  Connecticut  before  the  great 


208 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES, 


outbreak  at  Salem.  A  curious  one  appears  in  the  Maryland 
records  of  1654  as  having  happened  on  the  high  seas  upon  a 
vessel  bound  to  Baltimore,  where  a  woman  was  hanged  by  the 
seamen  upon  this  charge,  the  case  being  afterwards  investigated 
by  the  Governor  and  Council.  A  woman  was  tried  and  ac 
quitted  in  Pennsylvania  in 
1683;  one  was  hanged  in 
Maryland  for  this  alleged 
crime  by  due  sentence  of 
court  in  1685;  and  one  or 
two  cases  occurred  at  New 
York.  The  excitement 
finally  came  to  a  head  in 
1692  at  Salem,  Massachu 
setts,  where  nineteen  per 
sons  were  hanged,  and  one 
"  pressed  to  death "  for  re 
fusing  to  plead  —  this  be 
ing  the  regularly  ordained 
punishment  for  such  re 
fusal.  The  excitement  be 
ing  thus  relieved,  a  reac 
tion  followed.  Brave  old  Samuel  Sewall  won  for  himself  honor 
in  all  coming  time  by  rising  in  his  place  in  the  congregation, 
and  -causing  to  be  read  an  expression  of  regret  for  the  part  he 
had  taken  in  the  trials.  The  reaction  did  not  at  once  reach 
the  Southern  colonies.  Grace  Sherwood  was  legally  ducked 
for  witchcraft  in  Virginia  in  1705,  and  there  was  an  indict 
ment,  followed  by  acquittal,  in  Maryland  as  late  as  1712. 

That  the  delusion  reached  this  point  was  due  to  no  hard 
ened  inhumanity  of  feeling ;  on  the  contrary,  those  who  partici 
pated  in  it  prayed  to  be  delivered  from  any  such  emotion.  "  If 
a  drop  of  innocent  blood  should  be  shed  in  the  prosecution  of 
the  witchcrafts  among  us,  how  unhappy  are  we !"  wrote  Cotton 


SAMUEL   SEWALL. 

[From  the  collections  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.] 


SECOND  GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      209 


ARRESTING    A    WITCH. 


Mather.  Accordingly  Mr.  Poole  has  shown  that  this  eminent 
clergyman,  popularly  identified  beyond  any  one  else  with  the 
witchcraft  delusion,  yet  tried  to  have  it  met  by  united  prayer 
rather  than  by  the  courts ;  would  never  attend  any  of  the  witch 
craft  trials ;  cautioned  the  magistrates  against  credulity,  and 

H 


210  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

kept  secret  to  his  dying  day  the  names  of  many  persons  pri 
vately  inculpated  by  the  witnesses  with  whom  he  conversed. 
It  was  with  anguish  of  spirit  and  the  conscientious  fidelity  of 
the  Anglo-Saxon  temperament  that  these  men  entered  upon  the 
work.  Happy  would  they  have  been  could  they  have  taken 
such  supposed  visitations  lightly,  as  the  Frenchmen  on  this 
continent  have  taken  them.  Champlain  fully  believed,  as  has 
been  already  stated,  that  there  was  a  devil  under  the  name  of 
the  Gougou  inhabiting  a  certain  island  in  the  St.  Lawrence ; 
but  he  merely  crossed  himself,  carolled  a  French  song,  and 
sailed  by.  Yet  even  in  France,  as  has  been  seen,  the  delusion 
raged  enormously;  and  to  men  of  English  descent,  at  any  rate, 
it  was  no  such  light  thing  that  Satan  dwelt  visibly  in  the  midst 
of  them.  Was  this  to  be  the  end  of  all  their  labors,  their  sac 
rifices  ?  They  had  crossed  the  ocean,  fought  off  the  Indians, 
cleared  the  forest,  built  their  quaint  little  houses  in  the  clear 
ing,  extirpated  all  open  vice,  and  lo !  Satan  was  still  there  in 
concealment,  like  the  fabled  ghost  which  migrated  with  the 
family,  being  packed  among  the  beds.  There  is  no  mistaking 
the  intensity  of  their  lament.  See  with  what  depth  of  emotion 
Cotton  Mather  utters  it: 

"  'Tis  a  dark  time,  yea  a  black  night  indeed,  now  the  Ty-dogs  of  the  Pit  are 
abroad  among  us,  but  /'/  is  through  the  wrath  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  / .  .  .  Blessed 
Lord !  Are  all  the  other  Instruments  of  thy  Vengeance  too  good  for  the  chas 
tisement  of  such  Transgressors  as  we  are  ?  Must  the  very  Devils  be  sent  out 
•of  their  own  plase  to  be  our  troublers  ?  .  .  .  They  are  not  swarthy  Indians,  but 
they  are  sooty  Devils  that  are  let  loose  upon  us." 

Thus  wrote  Cotton  Mather,  he  who  had  sat  at  the  bedside 
of  the  "  bewitched  "  Margaret  Rule  and  had  distinctly  smelled 
sulphur. 

While  the  English  of  the  second  generation  were  thus  pass 
ing  through  a  phase  of  Puritanism  more  intense  than  any  they 
brought  with  them,  the  colonies  were  steadily  increasing  in 
population,  and  were  modifying  in  structure  towards  their  later 


SECOND   GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      21 1 

shape.  Delaware  had  passed  from  Swedish  under  Dutch  con 
trol,  Governor  Stuyvesant  having  taken  possession  of  the  col 
ony  in  1655  with  small  resistance.  Then  the  whole  Dutch 
territory,  thus  enlarged,  was  transferred  to  English  dominion, 
quite  against  the  will  of  the  same  headstrong  governor,  known 
as  "  Hardkoppig  Piet."  The  Dutch  had  thriven,  in  spite  of 
their  patroons,  and  their  slaves,  and  their  semblance  of  aristo 
cratic  government ;  they  had  built  forts  in  Connecticut,  claimed 
Cape  Cod  for  a  boundary,  and  even  stretched  their  demands  as 
far  as  Maine.  All  their  claims  and  possessions  were  at  last 
surrendered  without  striking  a  blow.  When  the  British  fleet 
appeared  off  Long  Island,  the  whole  organized  Dutch  force  in 
cluded  only  some  two  hundred  men  fit  for  duty,  scattered  from 
Albany  to  Delaware ;  the  inhabitants  of  New  Amsterdam  re 
fused  to  take  up  arms,  although  Governor  Stuyvesant  would 
fain  have  had  them,  and  he  was  so  enraged  that  he  tore  to 
pieces  the  letter  from  Nicolls,  the  English  commander,  to  avoid 
showing  it.  "  The  surrender,"  he  said,  "  would  be  reproved  in 
the  fatherland."  But  the  people  utterly  refused  to  stand  by 
him,  and  he  was  thus  compelled,  sorely  against  his  will,  to  sur 
render.  The  English  entered  into  complete  occupation ;  New 
Netherland  became  New  York ;  all  the  Dutch  local  names 
were  abolished,  although  destined  to  be  restored  during  the 
later  Dutch  occupation,  which  again  ceased  in  1674.  Yet  the 
impress  of  that  nationality  remains  to  this  day  on  the  names, 
the  architecture,  and  the  customs  of  that  region,  and  has  indeed 
tinged  those  of  the  whole  country ;  and  the  Dutch  had  securely 
founded  what  was  from  its  early  days  the  most  cosmopolitan 
city  of  America. 

Their  fall  left  the  English  in  absolute  possession  of  a  line 
of  colonies  that  stretched  from  Maine  southward.  This  now 
included  some  new  settlements  made  during  the  period  just 
described.  Carolina,  as  it  had  been  called  a  hundred  years  be 
fore  by  Jean  Ribaut  and  his  French  Protestants,  was  granted. 


212 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


PETER     STUYVESANT     TEARING    THE     LETTER    DEMANDING    THE     SURRENDER     OF 

NEW   YORK. 


in  1663,  by  King  Charles  the  Second  to  eight  proprietors,  who 
brought  with  them  a  plan  of  government  framed  for  them  by 
the  celebrated  John  Locke — probably  the  most  absurd  scheme 
of  government  ever  proposed  for  a  new  colony  by  a  philoso 
pher,  and  fortunately  set  aside  from  the  very  beginning  by  the 


SECOND  GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      213 

common-sense  of  the  colonists.  Being  the  most  southern  col 
ony,  Carolina  was  drawn  into  vexatious  wars  with  the  Span 
iards,  the  French,  and  the  Indians ;  but  it  was  many  years 
before  it  was  divided  by  the  King  into  two  parts,  and  before 
Georgia  was  settled.  Another  grant  by  Charles  the  Second 
was  more  wisely  planned,  when  in  1681  William  Penn  sent  out 
some  emigrants,  guided  by  no  philosopher  except  Penn  him 
self,  who  came  the  following  year.  A  great  tract  of  country 
was  granted  to  him  as  a  sort  of  equivalent  for  a  debt  owed  by 
the  King  to  his  father,  Admiral  Penn ;  the  annual  rent  was  to 
be  two  beaver-skins.  Everything  seemed  to  throw  around  the 
coming  of  William  Penn  the  aspect  of  a  lofty  enterprise :  his 
ship  was  named  "The  Welcome;"  his  new  city  was  to  be  called 
"  Brotherly  Love,"  or  "  Philadelphia."  His  harmonious  rela 
tions  \vith  the  Indians  have  been  the  wonder  of  later  times, 
though  it  must  be  remembered  that  he  had  to  do  with  no  such 
fierce  tribes  as  had  devastated  the  other  colonies.  Peace  pre 
vailed  with  sectarian  zealots,  and  even  towards  those  charged 
with  witchcraft.  Yet  even  Philadelphia  did  not  escape  the  evil 
habits  of  the  age,  and  established  the  whipping-post,  the  pillory, 
and  the  stocks — some  of  which  Delaware,  long  a  part  of  Penn 
sylvania,  still  retains.  But  there  is  no  such  scene  of  content 
ment  in  our  pioneer  history  as  that  which  the  early  annals  of 
"  Penn's  Woods  "  (Pennsylvania)  record. 

Other  great  changes  were  meanwhile  taking  place.  New 
Hampshire  and  New  Jersey  came  to  be  recognized  as  colonies 
by  themselves ;  the  union  of  the  New  England  colonies  was  dis 
solved  ;  Plymouth  was  merged  in  Massachusetts,  New  Haven  in 
Connecticut,  Delaware  temporarily  in  Pennsylvania.  At  the 
close  of  the  period  which  I  have  called  the  second  generation 
(1700)  there  were  ten  distinct  English  colonies  along  the  coast 
— New  Hampshire,  Massachusetts,  Rhode  Island,  Connecticut, 
New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  Maryland,  Virginia,  Caro 
lina. 

14* 


214  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

It  is  a  matter  of  profound  interest  to  observe  that  whatever 
may  be  the  variations  among  these  early  settlements,  we  find 
everywhere  the  distinct  traces  of  the  old  English  village  com 
munities,  which  again  are  traced  by  Freeman  and  others  to  a 
Swiss  or  German  origin.  The  founders  of  the  first  New  Eng 
land  towns  did  not  simply  settle  themselves  upon  the  principle 
of  "  squatter  sovereignty,"  each  for  himself ;  but  they  founded 
municipal  organizations,  based  on  a  common  control  of  the  land. 
So  systematically  was  this  carried  out  that  in  an  old  town  like 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  for  instance,  it  would  be  easy  at  this 
day,  were  all  the  early  tax  lists  missing,  to  determine  the  compar 
ative  worldly  condition  of  the  different  settlers  simply  by  com 
paring  the  proportion  which  each  had  to  maintain  of  the  great 
"  pallysadoe,"  or  paling,  which  surrounded  the  little  settlement. 
These  amounts  varied  from  seventy  rods,  in  case  of  the  richest, 
to  two  rods,  in  case  of  the  poorest;  and  so  well  was  the  work 
done  that  the  traces  of  the  "  fosse  "  about  the  paling  still  remain 
in  the  willow-trees  on  the  play-ground  of  the  Harvard  students. 
These  early  settlers  simply  reproduced,  with  a  few  necessary 
modifications,  those  local  institutions  which  had  come  to  them 
from  remote  ancestors.  The  town  paling,  the  town  'meeting, 
the  town  common,  the  town  pound,  the  fence-viewers,  the  field- 
drivers,  the  militia  muster,  even  the  tipstaves  of  the  constables, 
are  "  survivals  "  of  institutions  older  than  the  Norman  conquest 
of  England.  Even  the  most  matter-of-fact  transactions  of  their 
daily  life,  as  the  transfer  of  land  by  giving  a  piece  of  turf,  an 
instance  of  which  occurred  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  1696, 
sometimes  carry  us  back  to  usages  absolutely  mediaeval — in  this 
case  to  the  transfer  "by  turf  and  twig"  so  familiar  to  historians, 
although  it  is  unsafe  to  press  these  analogies  too  far,  since  the 
aboriginal  tribes  sometimes  practised  the  same  usage.  All  that 
the  New  England  settlers  added  to  their  traditional  institutions 
—  and  it  was  a  great  addition  —  was  the  system  of  common 
schools.  Beyond  New  England  the  analogies  with  inherited 


SECOND  GENERATION  OF  ENGLISHMEN  IN  AMERICA.      21 5. 

custom  are  less  clear  and  unmistakable ;  but  it  is  now  main 
tained  that  the  Southern  "  parish "  and  "  county,"  the  South 
Carolina  "  court-greens  "  and  "  common  pastures,"  as  well  as  the 
Maryland  "  manors  "  and  "  court-leets,"  all  represent,  under  dif 
ferent  combinations,  the  same  inherited  principle  of  communal 
sovereignty. 

The  period  which  I  have  assigned  to  the  second  generation 
in  America  may  be  considered  to  have  lasted  from  1650  to 
1700.  Even  during  this  period  there  took  place  collisions  of 
purpose  and  interest  between  the  home  government  and  the 
colonies.  The  contest  for  the  charters,  for  instance,  and  the 
short-lived  power  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros,  occurred  within  the 
time  which  has  here  been  treated,  but  they  were  the  forerunners 
of  a  later  contest,  and  will  be  included  in  another  chapter.  It 
will  then  be  necessary  to  describe  the  gradual  transformation 
which  made  colonies  into  provinces,  and  out  of  a  varied  emigra 
tion  developed  a  homogeneous  people ;  which  taught  the  Eng 
lish  ministry  to  distrust  the  Americans,  while  it  unconsciously 
weaned  the  Americans  from  England ;  so  that  the  tie  which  at 
first  had  expressed  only  affection,  became  at  last  a  hated  yoke, 
soon  to  be  thrown  aside  forever. 


IX. 

THE   BRITISH  YOKE. 

HOW  deep  and  tender  was  the  love  with  which  the  first 
American  colonists  looked  back  to  their  early  home ! 
Many  proofs  of  this  might  be  cited  from  their  writings,  but  I 
know  of  none  quite  so  eloquent  as  that  burst  of  impassioned 
feeling  in  a  sermon  by  William  Hooke — cousin  and  afterwards 
chaplain  of  Oliver  Cromwell — who  came  to  America  about  1636, 
and  preached  this  discourse  at  Taunton,  July  3,  1640,  under  the 
title,  "  New  England's  Teares  for  Old  England's  Feares."  This 
whole  production  is  marked  by  a  learning  and  eloquence  that 
remind  us  of  one  who  may  have  been  Hooke's  fellow-student  at 
Oxford,  Jeremy  Taylor;  indeed  it  contains 'a  description  of  a 
battle  which,  if  Taylor  had  written  it,  would  have  been  quoted 
in  every  history  of  English  literature  until  this  day.  And  in 
this  sermon  the  clergyman  thus  speaks  of  the  mother-country : 

"  There  is  no  Land  that  claimes  our  name  but  England ;"  wee  are  distin 
guished  from  all  the  Nations  in  the  World  by  the  name  of  English.  There  is 
no  Potentate  breathing  that  wee  call  our  dread  Sovereigne  but  King  Charles, 
nor  Lawes  of  any  Land  have  civilized  us  but  England's ;  there  is  no  Nation 
that  calls  us  Countrey-men  but  the  English.  Brethren !  Did  wee  not  there 
draw  in  our  first  breath  ?  Did  not  the  Sunne  first  shine  there  upon  our  heads  ? 
Did  not  that  Land  first  beare  us,  even  that  pleasant  Island,  but  for  sinne,  I 
would  say,  that  Garden  of  the  Lord,  that  Paradise  ?" 

What  changed  all  this  deep  tenderness  into  the  spirit  that 
found  the  British  yoke  detestable,  and  at  length  cast  it  off  ? 

There  have  been  many  other  great  changes  in  America 
since  that  day.  The  American  fields  have  been  altered  by  the 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  21? 

steady  advance  of  imported  weeds  and  flowers ;  the  buttercup^ 
the  dandelion,  and  the  ox-eyed  daisy  displacing  the  anemone 
and  violet.  The  American  physique  is  changed  to  a  slenderer 
and  more  finely  organized  type;  the  American  temperament 
has  grown  more  sensitive,  more  pliant,  more  adaptive ;  the 
American  voice  has  been  shifted  to  a  higher  key,  perhaps  yield 
ing  greater  music  when  fitly  trained.  Of  all  these  changes  we 
see  the  result,  but  cannot  trace  the  steps ;  and  it  is  almost  as 
difficult  to  trace  the  successive  impulses  by  which  the  love  of 
everything  that  was  English  was  transformed  into  a  hatred  of 
the  British  yoke. 

Yet  its  beginnings  may  be  observed  in  much  that  the  colo 
nists  did,  and  in  some  things  which  they  omitted.  Within  ten 
years  after  Hooke's  loving  reference  to  King  Charles  there  was 
something  ominous  in  the  cool  self-control  with  which  the  peo 
ple  of  Massachusetts  refrained  from  either  approving  or  disap 
proving  his  execution.  It  was  equally  ominous  when  they  ab 
stained  from  recognizing  the  accession  of  Richard  Cromwell, 
and  when  they  let  fifteen  months  pass  before  sending  a  congrat 
ulatory  address  to  Charles  the  Second.  It  was  the  beginning 
of  a  policy  of  indifference  more  significant  than  any  policy  of 
resistance.  When  in  1660,  under  that  monarch,  the  Act  of 
Navigation  was  passed,  prescribing  that  no  merchandise  should 
be  imported  into  the  plantations  but  in  English  vessels  navi 
gated  by  Englishmen,  the  New7  England  colonies  simply  ignored 
it.  During  sixteen  years  the  Massachusetts  governor,  annually 
elected  by  the  people,  never  once  took  the  oath  which  the  Nav 
igation  Act  required  of  him ;  and  when  the  courageous  Lever- 
ett  was  called  to  account  for  this  he  answered,  "  The  King  can 
in  reason  do  no  less  than  let  us  enjoy  our  liberties  and  trade, 
for  we  have  made  this  large  plantation  of  our  own  charge,  with 
out  any  contribution  from  the  crown."  Four  years  after  the 
Act  of  Navigation,  in  1664,  the  English  fleet  brought  royal  com 
missioners  to  Boston,  with  instructions  aiming  at  further  aggres- 


218  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

sion ;  and  there  was  great  dignity  in  the  response  of  the  General 
Court,  made  through  Governor  Endicott,  October  30,  1664: 
"  The  all-knowing  God  he  knowes  our  greatest  ambition  is  to 
Hue  a  poore  and  quiet  life  in  a  corner  of  the  world,  without 
offence  to  God  or  man.  Wee  came  not  into  this  wilderness  to 
seeke  great  things  to  ourselves,  and  if  any  come  after  vs  to  seeke 
them  heere,  they  will  be  disappointed."  They  then  declare  that 
to  yield  to  the  demands  of  the  commissioners  would  be  simply 
to  destroy  their  own  liberties,  expressly  guaranteed  to  them  by 
their  King,  and  dearer  than  their  lives. 

The  commissioners  visited  other  colonies  and  then  returned 
to  Boston,  where  they  announced  that  they  should  hold  a  court 
at  the  house  of  Captain  Thomas  Breedon  on  Hanover  Street, 
at  9  A.M.,  May  24,  1665.  It  happened  that  a  brother  officer  of 
Captain  Breedon,  one  Colonel  Cartwright,  who  had  come  over 
with  the  commissioners,  was  then  lying  ill  with  the  gout  at  this 
same  house.  At  eight  in  the  morning  a  messenger  of  the  Gen 
eral  Court  appeared  beneath  the  window,  blew  an  alarum  on 
the  trumpet,  and  proclaimed  that  the  General  Court  protested 
against  any  such  meeting.  He  then  departed  to  make  similar 
proclamation  in  other  parts  of  the  town ;  and  when  the  royal 
commissioners  came  together  they  found  nobody  with  whom  to 
confer  but  the  gouty  and  irate  Colonel  Cartwright,  enraged  at 
the  disturbance  of  his  morning  slumbers.  So  perished  all  hope 
of  coercing  the  Massachusetts  colony  at  that  time. 

Thus  early  did  the  British  yoke  begin  to  make  itself  felt  as 
a  grievance.  The  Massachusetts  men  discreetly  allayed  the 
effect  of  their  protest  by  sending  his  Majesty  a  ship -load  of 
masts,  the  freight  on  which  cost  the  colony  ^"1600.  For  ten 
years  the  quarrel  subsided :  England  had  trouble  enough  with 
her  neighbors  without  meddling  with  the  colonies.  Then  the 
contest  revived,  and  while  the  colonies  were  in  the  death-strug 
gle  of  Philip's  war,  Edward  Randolph  came  as  commissioner 
with  a  king's  letter  in  1675.  Two  years  later  the  Massachusetts 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  219 

colonists  made  for  the  first  time  the  distinct  assertion  to  the 
King,  while  pledging  their  loyalty,  that  "  the  laws  of  England 
were  bounded  within  the  four  seas,  and  did  not  reach  America," 
giving  as  a  reason  for  this,  "  they  [the  colonists]  not  being  rep 
resented  in  Parliament."  Then  followed  the  long  contest  for 
the  charter,  while  Edward  Randolph,  like  a  sort  of  Mephistoph- 
eles,  was  constantly  coming  and  going  between  America  and 
England  with  fresh  complaints  and  new  orders,  crossing  the 
Atlantic  eight  times  in  nine  years,  and  having  always,  by  his 
own  statement,  "  pressed  the  necessity  of  a  general  Governor 
as  absolutely  necessary  for  the  honor  and  service  of  the  crown." 
All  this  long  series  of  contests  has  been  minutely  narrated  by 
Mr.  Charles  Deane,  with  a  thoroughness  and  clearness  which 
would  have  won  him  a  world -wide  reputation  had  they  only 
been  brought  to  bear  upon  the  history  of  some  little  European 
State.  Again  and  again,  in  different  forms,  the  attempt  was 
made  to  take  away  the  charters  of  the  colonies ;  and  the  opposi 
tion  was  usually  led,  at  least  in  New  England,  by  the  clergy. 
Increase  Mather,  in  1683-84,  addressed  a  town-meeting  in  opposi 
tion  to  one  such  demand,  and  openly  counselled  that  they  should 
return  Naboth's  answer  when  Ahab  asked  for  his  vineyard,  that 
they  would  not  give  up  the  inheritance  of  their  fathers. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  all  the  early  charters  were  de 
fective  in  this,  that  they  did  not  clearly  define  where  the  line 
was  to  be  drawn  between  the  rights  of  the  local  government 
and  of  the  crown.  We  can  see  now  that  such  definition  would 
have  been  impossible ;  even  the  promise  given  to  Lord  Balti 
more  that  Maryland  should  have  absolute  self-government  did 
not  avert  all  trouble.  It  is  also  to  be  remembered  that  there 
were  great  legal  difficulties  in  annulling  a  charter,  so  long  as 
the  instrument  itself  had  not  been  reclaimed  by  the  power  that 
issued  it.  We  read  with  surprise  of  a  royal  scheme  thwarted 
by  so  simple  a  process  as  the  hiding  of  the  Connecticut  charter 
in  a  hollow  tree  by  William  Wadsworth ;  but  an  almost  vital 


220  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

importance  was  attached  in  those  days  to  the  actual  possession 
of  the  instrument.  It  was  considered  the  most  momentous  of 
all  the  Lord  Chancellor's  duties  —  indeed,  that  from  which  he 
had  his  name  (cancellarius)  —  to  literally  cancel  and  obliterate 
the  King's  letters-patent  under  the  great  seal.  Hence,  although 
the  old  charter  of  Massachusetts  was  vacated  October  23,  1684,. 
it  has  always  been  doubted  by  lawyers  whether  this  was  ever 
legally  done,  inasmuch  as  the  old  charter  never  was  cancelled, 
and  hangs  intact  in  the  office  of  the  Massachusetts  Secretary 
of  State  to  this  day.  In  1686  came  the  new  governor  for  the 
colonies — not  the  dreaded  Colonel  Kirke,  who  had  been  fully 
expected,  but  the  less  formidable  Sir  Edmund  Andros. 

The  first  foretaste  of  the  provincial  life,  as  distinct  from  the 
merely  colonial,  was  in  the  short-lived  career  of  this  ruler.  He 
came,  a  brilliant  courtier,  among  the  plain  Americans;  his  ser 
vants  wore  gay  liveries ;  Lady  Andros  had  the  first  coach  seen 
in  Boston.  He  was  at  different  times  Governor  of  New  York, 
President  of  New  England,  and  Governor  of  Virginia.  Every 
where  he  was  received  with  aversion,  but  everywhere  this  was 
tempered  by  the  feeling  that  it  might  have  been  worse,  for  it 
might  have  been  Kirke.  Yet  there  was  exceeding  frankness  in 
the  way  the  colonists  met  their  would-be  tyrant.  When  he  vis 
ited  Hartford,  Connecticut,  for  instance,  he  met  Dr.  Hooker  one 
morning,  and  said,  "  I  suppose  all  the  good  people  of  Connecti 
cut  are  fasting  and  praying  on  my  account."  The  doctor  re 
plied,  "  Yes ;  we  read, '  This  kind  goeth  not  out  but  by  fasting 
and  prayer.' "  And  it  required  not  merely  these  methods,  but 
something  more,  to  eject  Sir  Edmund  at  last  from  the  colonies. 

The  three  years'  sway  of  Sir  Edmund  Andros  accustomed 
the  minds  of  the  American  colonists  to  a  new  relation  between 
themselves  and  England.  Even  where  the  old  relation  was  not 
changed  in  form  it  was  changed  in  feeling.  The  colonies  which 
had  seemed  most  secure  in  their  self-government  were  liable  at 
any  moment  to  become  mere  royal  provinces.  Indeed,  they 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE. 


221 


GOVERNOR   ANDROS  AND   THE    BOSTON   PEOPLE. 

were  officially  informed  that  his  Majesty  had  decided  to  unite 
under  one  government  "  all  the  English  territories  in  America, 
from  Delaware  Bay  to  Nova  Scotia,"  though  this  was  not  really 
attempted.  Yet  charters  were  taken  away  almost  at  random, 
colonies  were  divided  or  united  without  the  consent  of  their  in- 


222  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

habitants,  and  the  violation  of  the  right  of  local  government  was 
everywhere  felt.  But  in  various  ways,  directly  or  indirectly,  the 
purposes  of  Andros  were  thwarted.  When  the  English  revolu 
tion  of  1688  came,  his  power  fell  without  a  blow,  and  he  found 
himself  in  the  hands  of  the  rebellious  men  of  Boston.  The  day 
had  passed  by  when  English  events  could  be  merely  ignored, 
and  so  every  colony  proclaimed  with  joy  the  accession  of  Will 
iam  and  Mary.  Such  men  as  Jacob  Leisler,  in  New  York, 
Robert  Treat,  in  Connecticut,  and  the  venerable  Simon  Brad- 
street — then  eighty-seven  years  old — in  Massachusetts,  were  at 
once  recognized  as  the  leaders  of  the  people.  There  was  some 
temporary  disorder,  joined  with  high  hope,  but  the  colonies 
never  really  regained  what  they  had  lost,  and  henceforth  held, 
more  or  less  distinctly,  the  character  of  provinces,  until  they 
took  their  destiny,  long  after,  into  their  own  hands.  It  needed 
almost  a  century  to  prepare  them  for  that  event,  not  only  by 
their  increasing  sense  of  grievance,  but  by  learning  to  stretch 
out  their  hands  to  one  another. 

With  the  fall  of  the  colonial  charters  fell  the  New  England 
confederacy  that  had  existed  from  1643.  There  were  other- 
plans  of  union  :  William  Penn  formed  a  very  elaborate  one  in 
1 698 ;  others  labored  afterwards  in  pamphlets  to  modify  his  plan 
or  to  suggest  their  own.  On  nine  different  occasions,  between 
1684  and  1751,  three  or  more  colonies  met  in  council,  repre 
sented  by  their  governors  or  by  their  commissioners,  to  consult 
on  internal  affairs,  usually  with  reference  to  the  Indians ;  but 
they  apparently  never  had  a  thought  of  disloyalty,  and  certainly 
never  proclaimed  independence ;  nor  did  their  meetings  for  a 
long  time  suggest  any  alarm  in  the  minds  of  the  British  minis 
try.  The  new  jealousies  that  arose  related  rather  to  commercial 
restrictions  than  to  the  form  of  government. 

It  is  necessary  to  remember  that  even  in  colonial  days,  while 
it  was  of  the  greatest  importance  that  the  British  law-makers 
should  know  all  about  the  colonies,  there  was  on  their  part  even. 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE. 


22$ 


a  denser  ignorance  as  to  American  affairs  than  that  which  now 
impresses  the  travelling  American  in  England.  When  he  is- 
asked  if  he  came  from  America  by  land,  it  is  only  a  matter  for 
amusement;  but  when,  as  James  Otis  tells  us — writing  in  1764 
— it  was  not  uncommon  for  official  papers  to  come  from  an 
English  Secretary  of  State  addressed  to  "  the  Governor  of  the 
island  of  New  England,"  it 
was  a  more  serious  matter. 
Under  such  circumstances 
the  home  government  was 
liable  at  any  minute  to  be 
swept  away  from  all  just 
policy  by  some  angry  tale 
told  by  Randolph  or  An- 
dros.  The  prevalent  Brit 
ish  feeling  towards  the  col 
onies  was  one  of  indiffer 
ence,  broken  only  by  out 
bursts  of  anger,  and  spasms 
of  commercial  selfishness. 

The  event  which  startled 
the  British  ministry  from 
this  indifference  was  the 

taking  of  Louisburg  in  1745,  as  described  in  a  previous  chap 
ter.  This  success  may  have  been,  as  has  been  asserted,  only 
a  lucky  accident ;  no  matter,  it  startled  not  only  America,  but 
Europe.  That  a  fortress  deemed  impregnable  by  French  en 
gineers,  and  amply  garrisoned  by  French  soldiers,  should  have 
been  captured  by  a  mob  of  farmers  and  fishermen — this  gave 
subject  for  reflection.  "  Every  one  knows  the  importance  of 
Louisburg,"  wrote  James  Otis,  proudly,  "  in  the  consultations  of 
Aix-la-Chapelle."  Voltaire,  in  writing  the  history  of  Louis  the 
Fifteenth,  heads  the  chapter  of  the  calamities  of  France  with 
this  event.  He  declares  that  the  mere  undertaking  of  such  an 


JAMES   OTIS. 
[From  a  painting  by  I.  Blackburn,  1755.] 


224  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

enterprise  showed  of  what  a  community  was  capable  when  it 
united  the  spirit  of  trade  and  of  war.  The  siege  of  Louisburg, 
he  says,  was  not  due  to  the  cabinet  at  London,  but  solely  to  the 
daring  of  the  New  England  traders  (?  ce  fut  le  fruit  de  la  har- 
diesse  des  marchands  de  la  Nouvelle  Angleterre"\  But  while  the 
feeling  inspired  on  the  European  continent  was  one  of  respect, 
that  created  in  England  was  mingled -with  dread.  Was,  then, 
the  child  learning  to  do  without  the  parent?  And  certainly  the 
effect  on  the  minds  of  the  Americans  looked  like  anything  but 
the  development  of  humility.  Already  the  colonies,  from  Mas 
sachusetts  to  Virginia,  were  eagerly  planning  the  conquest  of 
Canada,  they  to  furnish  the  whole  land-force,  and  Great  Britain 
the  fleet — a  project  which  failed  through  the  fears  of  the  British 
ministry.  The  Duke  of  Bedford,  then  at  the  head  of  the  naval 
service,  frankly  objected  to  it  because  of  "  the  independence  it 
might  create  in  these  provinces,  when  they  shall  see  within 
themselves  so  great  an  army  possessed  by  so  great  a  country 
by  right  of  conquest."  And  the  Swedish  traveller,  Peter  Kalm, 
writing  three  years  later  from  New  York,  put  the  whole  matter 
yet  more  clearly,  thus :  "  There  is  reason  for  doubting  whether 
the  King,  if  he  had  the  power,  would  wish  to  drive  the  French 
from  their  possessions  in  Canada.  .  .  .  The  English  government 
has  therefore  reason  to  regard  the  French  in  North  America  as 
the  chief  power  that  urges  their  colonies  to  submission."  •  Any 
such  impressions  were  naturally  confirmed  when,  in  1 748,  the 
indignant  American  colonists  saw  Louisburg  go  back  to  the 
French  under  the  treaty  of  Aix-la-Chapelle. 

The  trouble  was  that  the  British  government  wished  the  col 
onies  to  unite  sufficiently  to  check  the  French  designs,  but  not 
enough  to  assert  their  own  power.  Thus  the  ministry  positive 
ly  encouraged  the  convention  of  delegates  from  the  New  Eng 
land  colonies  and  from  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland, 
which  met  at  Albany  on  June  19,  1754.  It  was  in  this  conven 
tion  that  Franklin  began  a  course  of  national  influence  which 


THE  BRITISH   YOKE.  22$ 

was  long  continued,  and  brought  forward  his  famous  representa 
tion  of  the  snake  dismembered,  with  the  motto  "  Unite  or  Die." 
He  showed  also  his  great  organizing  power  by  carrying  through 
the  convention  a  plan  for  a  council  of  forty-eight  members  dis 
tributed  among  the  different  colonies,  and  having  for  its  head  a 
royal  presiding  officer  with  veto  power.  All  the  delegates,  ex 
cept  those  from  Connecticut,  sustained  the  plan  ;  it  was  only 
when  it  went  to  the  several  colonies  and  the  British  ministry 
that  it  failed.  Its  ill-success  in  these  two  directions  came  from 
diametrically  opposite  reasons;  the  colonies  thought  that  it  gave 
them  too  little  power,  and  the  King's  Council  found  in  it  just 
the  reverse  fault.  It  failed,  but  its  failure  left  on  the  public 
mind  an  increased  sense  of  divergence  between  England  and 
America.  Merely  to  have  conceived  such  a  plan  was  a  great 
step  towards  the  American  Union  that  came  afterwards;  but 
still  there  was  no  conscious  shrinking  from  the  British  yoke. 

The  ten  colonies  which  had  a  separate  existence  in  1700 
had  half  a  century  later  grown  to  thirteen.  Delaware,  after 
having  been  merged  in  Pennsylvania,  was  again  separated  from 
it  in  1 703 ;  North  and  South  Carolina  were  permanently  di 
vided  in  1729;  Georgia  was  settled  in  1733.  No  colony  had 
a  nobler  foundation ;  it  was  planned  by  its  founder — a  British 
general  and  a  member  of  Parliament — expressly  as  a  refuge  for 
poor  debtors  and  other  unfortunates ;  the  colony  was  named 
Georgia  in  honor  of  the  King,  but  it  was  given  to  the  proprie 
tors  "  in  trust  for  the  poor,"  and  its  seal  had  a  family  of  silk 
worms,  with  the  motto  "  Not  for  yourselves  "  (Sic  vos  non  vobis). 
Oglethorpe  always  kept  friendship  with  the  Indians;  he  refused 
to  admit  either  slavery  or  ardent  spirits  into  the  colony.  But 
his  successors  did  not  adhere  to  his  principles,  and  the  col 
ony  was  small  and  weak  up  to  the  time  of  the  coming  sep 
aration  from  England.  Yet  the  growth  of  the  colonies  as  a 
whole  was  strong  and  steady.  Bancroft  estimates  their  num 
bers  in  1754  at  1,185,000  whites  and  260,500  colored,  making 

IS 


226 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


GENERAL  OGLETHORPE,  FOUNDER  OF 
GEORGIA. 


in  all  nearly  a  million  and 
a  half.  Counting  the  whites 
only,  Massachusetts  took  the 
lead  in  population  ;  counting 
both  races,  Virginia.  "  Some 
few  towns  excepted,"  wrote 
Dickinson  soon  after,  "  we 
are  all  tillers  of  the  earth, 
from  Nova  Scotia  to  West 
Florida.  We  are  a  people 
of  cultivators,  scattered  over 
an  immense  territory,  com 
municating  with  each  other 
by  means  of  good  roads  and 
navigable  rivers,  united  by 

the  silken   bands   of  mild  government,  all  respecting  the  laws 
without  dreading  their  power,  because  they  are  equitable." 

But  if  the  colonies  had  all  been  composed  of  peaceful  agri 
culturists,  the  British  yoke  would  have  been  easy.  It  was  on 
the  commercial  settlements  that  the  exactions  of  the  home  gov 
ernment  bore  most  severely,  and  hence  it  was  that  the  East 
ern  colonies,  which  had  suffered  most  in  the  Indian  wars,  were 
again  to  endure  most  oppression.  An  English  political  econ 
omist  of  1690,  in  a  tract  included  in  the  "  Harleian  Miscellany," 
pointed  out  that  there  were  two  classes  of  colonies  in  America ; 
that  England  need  have  no  jealousy  of  those  which  raised  only 
sugar  and  tobacco,  and  thus  gave  her  a  market;  but  she  must 
keep  anxious  watch  on  those  which  competed  with  England  in 
fishing  and  trade,  and  "  threatened  in  time  a  total  independence 
therefrom."  "  When  America  shall  be  so  well  peopled,  civil 
ized,  and  divided  into  kingdoms,"  wrote  Sir  Thomas  Browne 
about  the  same  time,  "  they  are  like  to  have  so  little  regard  of 
their  originals  as  to  acknowledge  no  subjection  unto  them." 
All  the  long  series  of  arbitrary  measures  which  followed  were 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  227 

but  the  effort  of  the  British  government  to  avert  this  danger. 
The  conquest  of  Canada,  by  making  the  colonies  more  impor 
tant,  only  disposed  the  ministry  to  enforce  obnoxious  laws  that 
had  hitherto  been  dead  letters. 

Such  laws  were  the  "  Navigation  Act,"  and  the  "  Sugar  Act," 
and  what  were  known  generally  as  the  "  Acts  of  Trade,"  all 
aimed  at  the  merchants  of  New  England  and  New  York.  Out 
of  this  grew  the  u  Writs  of  Assistance,"  which  gave  authority 
to  search  any  house  for  merchandise  liable  to  duty,  and  which 
were  resisted  in  a  celebrated  argument  by  James  Otis  in  1761. 
Then  came  the  "  Declaratory  Resolves  "  of  1 764,  which  were  the 
precursors  of  the  "  Stamp  Act."  The  discussion  occasioned  by 
these  measures  was  more  important  than  any  other  immediate 
effect  they  produced ;  they  afforded  an  academy  of  political  edu 
cation  for  the  people.  Those  who  had  called  themselves  Whigs 
gradually  took  the  name  of  Patriots,  and  from  Patriots  they  be 
came  "  Sons  of  Liberty."  Every  successive  measure  struck  at 
once  the  double  chord  of  patriotism  and  pocket,  so  that  "  Liber 
ty  and  property  "  became  the  common  cry.  The  colonists  took 
the  position,  which  is  found  everywhere  in  Otis's  "  Rights  of  the 
Colonies,"  that  their  claims  were  not  dependent  on  the  validity 
of  their  charters,  but  that  their  rights  as  British  subjects  were 
quite  sufficient  to  protect  them. 

From  this  time  forth  the  antagonism  increased,  and  it  so 
roused  and  united  the  people  that  the  student  wonders  how  it 
happened  that  the  actual  outbreak  was  delayed  so  long.  It  is 
quite  remarkable,  in  view  of  the  recognized  differences  among 
the  colonies,  that  there  should  have  been  such  unanimity  in 
tone.  There  was  hardly  anything  to  choose,  in  point  of  weight 
and  dignity,  between  the  protests  drawn  up  by  Oxenbridge 
Thacher  in  Massachusetts,  by  Stephen  Hopkins  in  Rhode  Isl 
and,  by  the  brothers  Livingston  in  New  York,  and  by  Lee  and 
Wythe  in  Virginia.  The  Southern  colonies,  which  suffered 
least  from  the  exactions  of  the  home  government,  made  common 


228 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


cause  with  those  which  suffered  most.  All  the  colonies  claimed, 
in  the  words  of  the  Virginia  Assembly,  "  their  ancient  and  inde 
structible  right  of  being  governed  by  such  laws  respecting  their 


LORD    CHATHAM. 
[After  the  picture  by  R.  Brompton.] 


internal  polity  and  taxation  as  were  derived  from  their  own  con 
sent,  with  the  approbation  of  their  sovereign  or  his  substitute." 

The  blow  fell  in  1765,  with  the  Stamp  Act — an  act  which 
would  not  have  been  unjust  or  unreasonable  in   England,  and 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  229 

was  only  held  so  in  America  because  it  involved  the  principle 
of  taxing  where  there  was  no  representation.  For  a  moment 
the  colonies  seemed  stunned ;  then  the  bold  protest  of  Patrick 
Henry  in  Virginia  was  taken  up  by  James  Otis  in  Massachu 
setts.  He  it  was  who  proposed  an  "American  Congress"  in 
1 765,  and  though  only  nine  out  of  the  thirteen  colonies  sent 
delegates,  this  brought  them  nearer  than  ever  before.  It  drew 
up  its  "  Declaration  of  Rights."  Then  followed,  in  colony  after 
colony,  mobs  and  burnings  in  effigy ;  nobody  dared  to  act  as 
stamp  officer.  When  the  news  reached  England,  the  Earl  of 
Chatham  said :  "  The  gentleman  tells  us  that  America  is  obsti 
nate,  America  is  almost  in  open  rebellion.  I  rejoice  that  Amer 
ica  has  resisted."  Then  came  the  riot  between  people  and 
soldiers,  called  the  "Boston  Massacre,"  in  1770,  and  the  capture 
by  the  people  of  the  armed  British  schooner  Gaspee,  off  Rhode 
Island,  in  1772.  In  1773  the  tea  was  thrown  into  the  harbor 
at  Boston ;  at  Annapolis  it  was  burned ;  at  Charleston  it  was 
stored  and  left  to  spoil ;  at  New  York  and  Philadelphia  it  was 
returned.  The  next  year  came  the  Boston  Port  Bill,  received 
with  public  mourning  in  the  other  colonies,  and  with  grim  en 
durance  by  the  Bostonians.  A  thriving  commercial  city  sud 
denly  found  itself  unable  to  receive  any  vessel  whose  cargo  had 
not  been  first  landed  at  a  port  then  thirty  miles  away  by  road 
— Marblehead — or  to  discharge  any  except  through  a  custom 
house  at  Plymouth,  then  forty  miles  by  road  in  the  other  direc 
tion.  All  the  industries  of  the  place  were  stopped,  and  the 
price  of  fuel  and  provisions  rose  one-third ;  for  every  stick  of 
wood  and  every  barrel  of  molasses  had  to  be  landed  first  on  the 
wharf  at  Marblehead,  and  then  laboriously  reshipped  to  Boston, 
or  be  sent  on  the  long  road  by  land.  But  as  tyranny  usually 
reacts  upon  itself,  the  voluntary  contributions  which  came  from 
all  parts  of  the  colonies  to  the  suffering  city  did  more  to  cement 
a  common  feeling  than  years  of  prosperity  could  have  done. 
In  this  chafed  and  oppressed  position  the  people  of  Boston 


230 


HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


THE    "  BOSTON    MASSACRE. 


awaited  events,  and  the  country  looked  on.  Meanwhile  the  first 
Continental  Congress  had  met  at  Philadelphia,  September  5, 
1774,  with  a  sole  view  to  procuring  a  redress  of  grievances,  the 
people  of  every  colony  pledging  themselves  in  one  form  or 
another  to  abide  by  the  decision  of  this  body.  In  July  of  that 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE. 


231 


year,  long  before  the  thought  of  separation  took  shape  even  in 
the  minds  of  the  leaders,  Ezra  Stiles  wrote  this  prophecy :  "  If 
oppression  proceeds,  despotism  may  originate  an  American 
Magna  Charta  and  Bill  of  Rights,  supported  by  such  intrepid 
and  persevering  importunity  as  even  sovereignty  may  hereafter 
judge  it  not  wise  to  withstand.  There  will  be  a  Runnymede 
in  America."  Such  \vas  the  change  from  1640  to  1774;  the 
mother-country  which  to  Hooke  signified  paradise,  to  Stiles  sig 
nified  oppression ;  the  one  clergyman  wrote  to  deprecate  war  in 
England,  the  other  almost  invoked  it  in  America. 

The  Congress  met,  every  colony  but  little  Georgia  being 
soon  represented.  Its  meeting  signified  that  the  colonies  were 
at  last  united.  In  Patrick  Henry's  great  opening  speech  he 


BURNING    OF    THE   "  GASPEE." 


232  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

said :  "  British  oppression  has  effaced  the  boundaries  of  the  sev 
eral   colonies ;   the   distinctions   between  Virginians,  Pennsylva- 


REV.   EZRA    STILES,   D.D.,    LL.D.,   PRESIDENT    OF    YALE    COLLEGE,    1777-179$. 

[From  the  painting  in  the  Trumbull  Gallery,  New  Haven.] 

nians,  New-Yorkers,  and  New-Englanders  are  no  more.     I  am 
not  a  Virginian,  but  an  American." 

There  is,  I  think,  an  undue  tendency  in  these  days  to  ex 
aggerate  the  differences  between  the  colonies ;  and  in  bringing 
them  to  the  eve  of  a  great  struggle  it  is  needful  to  consider 
how  far  they  were  different,  and  how  far  they  were  one.  In 
fact,  the  points  of  resemblance  among  the  different  colonies  far 
exceeded  the  points  of  difference.  They  were  mainly  of  the 
same  English  race ;  they  were  mainly  Puritans  in  religion ;  they 
bore  with  them  the  local  institutions  and  traditions ;  all  held 
slaves,  though  in  varying  proportions.  On  the  other  hand,  they 
were  subject  to  certain  variations  of  climate,  pursuits,  and  local 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  233 

institutions ;    but,  after   all,  these   were    secondary ;    the    resem 
blances  were  more  important. 

The  style  of  architecture  prevailing  throughout  the  colonies 
in  the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century  gives  proof  enough 
that  the  mode  of  living  among  the  higher  classes  at  that  period 
must  everywhere  have  been  much  the  same.  The  same  great 
square  edifices,  the  same  stacks  of  chimneys,  the  same  tiles,  the 
same  mahogany  stairways,  and  the  same  carving  are  still  to  be 


PATRICK     HENRY. 
[From  the  painting  by  Sully.] 


seen  in  the  old  dwellings  of  Portsmouth,  Newburyport,  Salem, 
Boston,  Newport,  Philadelphia,  Annapolis,  and  Norfolk.  When 
Washington  came  from  Mount  Vernon  to  Cambridge  as  com 
mander  of  the  American  army,  he  occupied  as  head-quarters  a 


234  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

house  resembling  in  many  respects  his  own ;  and  this  was  one 
of  a  line  of  similar  houses,  afterwards  known  as  "  Tory  Row," 
and  extending  from  Harvard  College  to  Mount  Auburn.  These 
were  but  the  types  of  the  whole  series  of  colonial  or  rather  pro 
vincial  houses,  North  and  South.  Sometimes  they  were  built 
of  wood,  the  oaken  frames  being  brought  from  England,  some 
times  of  bricks  brought  from  Scotland,  sometimes  of  stone.  The 
chief  difference  between  the  Northern  and  Southern  houses, 
was  that  the  chambers,  being  less  important  in  a  warm  country, 
were  less  ample  and  comfortable  in  the  Southern  houses,  and 
the  windows  were  smaller,  while  for  the  same  reason  there  was 
much  more  lavish  ness  in  the  way  of  piazzas.  Every  one  accus 
tomed  to  the  old  Northern  houses  is  surprised  at  the  inadequate 
chambers  of  Mount  Vernon,  and  it  appears  from  the  diary  of 
Mr.  Frost,  a  New  England  traveller  in  1797,  that  he  was  then 
so  struck  with  the  smallness  of  the  windows  as  to  have  made  a 
note  of  it.  The  stairway  at  Arlington  is  singularly  dispropor- 
tioned  to  the  external  dignity  of  the  house,  and  there  is  a  tra 
dition  that  at  the  funeral  of  Jefferson  the  stairway  of  his  house 
at  Monticello  proved  too  narrow  for  the  coffin,  so  that  it  had 
to  be  lowered  from  the  window.  All  this  was  the  result  of  the 
out-door  climate,  and  apart  from  these  trivial  variations  the  life 
North  and  South  was  much  the  same — stately  and  ceremonious 
in  the  higher  classes,  with  social  distinctions  much  more  thor 
oughly  marked  than  we  are  now  accustomed  to  remember. 

We  know  by  the  private  memoirs  of  the  provincial  period — 
for  instance,  from  the  charming  recollections  of  Mrs.  Quincy 
— that  the  costumes  and  manners  of  the  upper  classes  were 
everywhere  modelled  on  the  English  style  of  the  period.  Even 
after  the  war  of  independence,  when  the  wealthier  inhabitants 
of  Boston  had  largely  gone  into  exile  at  Halifax,  the  churches 
were  still  filled  on  important  occasions  with  gentlemen  wearing 
wigs,  cocked  hats,  and  scarlet  cloaks ;  and  before  the  Revolu 
tion  the  display  must  have  been  far  greater.  In  Maryland,  at 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  235 

a  somewhat  earlier  period,  we  find  an  advertisement  in  the 
Maryland  Gazette  of  a  servant  who  offers  himself  "  to  wait  on 
table,  curry  horses,  clean  knives,  boots  and  shoes,  lay  a  table, 
shave,  and  dress  wigs,  carry  a  lantern,  and  talk  French ;  is  as 
honest  as  the  times  will  admit,  and  as  sober  as  can  be."  From 
this  standard  of  a  servant's  accomplishments  we  can  easily 
infer  the  mode  of  life  among  the  masters. 

A  striking  illustration  of  these  social  demarcations  is  to 
be  found  in  the  general  catalogues,  now  called  "  triennial,"  or 
"  quinquennial,"  of  our  older  colleges.  Down  to  the  year  1 768 
at  Yale,  and  1773  at  Harvard,  the  students  of  each  class  will 
be  found  arranged  in  an  order  which  is  not  alphabetical,  as  at 
the  present  day,  but  seems  arbitrary.  Not  at  all ;  they  were 
arranged  according  to  the  social  positions  of  their  parents ; 
and  we  know  from  the  recollections  of  the  venerable  Paine 
Wingate  that  the  first  thing  done  by  the  college  authorities 
on  the  admission  of  a  new  class  was  to  ascertain  by  careful 
inquiry  these  facts.  According  to  the  result  of  the  inquiry  the 
young  students  were  "  placed  "  in  the  dining-hall  and  the  recita- 
tiori-room,  and  upon  this  was  also  based  the  choice  of  college 
rooms.  Had  they  always  retained  this  relative  standing  it 
would  have  been  less  galling,  but  while  the  most  distinguished 
student  could  not  rise  in  the  list,  the  reprobates  could  fall ; 
and  the  best  scholar  in  the  class  might  find  himself  not  merely 
in  a  low  position  through  his  parentage,  but  flanked  on  each 
side  by  scions  of  more  famed  families  who  had  been  degraded 
by  their  own  folly  or  vice.  There  could  not  be  a  more  con 
clusive  proof  that  American  provincial  society,  even  in  the 
Eastern  colonies,  was  founded,  before  the  final  separation  from 
England,  on  an  essentially  aristocratic  basis. 

In  the  same  connection  it  must  be  remembered  that  in  the 
eighteenth  century  slavery  gave  the  tone  of  manners  through 
all  the  colonies.  No  matter  how  small  the  proportion  of  slaves, 
experience  shows  that  it  affected  the  whole  habit  of  society. 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


AN    OUT-OF-DOOR   TEA-PARTY   IN    COLONIAL    NEW   ENGLAND. 

In  Massachusetts,  in  1775,  there  was  probably  a  population  of 
some  350,000,  of  whom  but  5000  were  slaves.  It  was  enough ; 
the  effect  followed.  It  was  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  not 
in  Virginia,  that  Longfellow  found  his  tradition  of  the  lady  who 
was  buried  by  her  own  order  with  slave  attendants : 

"  At  her  feet  and  at  her  head 
Lies  a  slave  to  attend^tfie  dead ; 
But  their  dust  is  as  white  as  hers." 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  237 

It  is  curious  to  compare  the  command  of  this  dying  woman 
of  the  Vassall  race — whether  it  was  an  act  of  arrogance  or  of 
humility  —  with  the  self-humiliation  of  a  Virginia  dame  of  the 
same  period,  who  directed  the  burial  of  her  body  beneath  that 
portion  of  the  church  occupied  by  the  poor,  since  she  had 
despised  them  in  life,  and  wished  them  to  trample  upon  her 
when  dead.  Let  us  consider,  by  way  of  further  illustration, 
the  way  of  living  on  the  Narraganset  shore  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  see  how  closely  it  resembled  that  of  Virginia. 

The  late  venerable  Isaac  Peace  Hazard,  of  Newport,  Rhode 
Island,  told  me  that  his  great-grandfather,  Robert  Hazard,  of 
Narraganset,  used  in  later  life,  when  he  had  given  away  many 
of  his  farms  to  his  children,  to  congratulate  himself  on  the 
small  limits  to  which  he  had  reduced  his  household,  having 
only  seventy  in  parlor  and  kitchen.  He  occupied  at  one  time 
nearly  twelve  thousand  acres  of  land,  and  kept  some  four  thou 
sand  sheep,  from  whose  fleece  his  large  household  was  almost 
wholly  clothed.  He  had  in  his  dairy  twelve  negro  women,  all 
slaves,  and  each  having  a  young  girl  to  assist  her;  each  dairy 
maid  had  the  care  of  twelve  cows,  and  they  were  expected 
to  make  from  one  to  two  dozen  cheeses  every  day.  This  was 
the  agricultural  and  domestic  side ;  the  social  life  consisted  of 
one  long  series  of  gay  entertainments,  visiting  from  house  to 
house,  fox-hunting  and  horse -racing  with  the  then  famous 
breed  of  Narraganset  pacers.  Mr.  Isaac  Hazard  had  known 
old  men  who  in  their  youth  had  gone  to  Virginia  to  ride  their 
own  horses  at  races,  and  kept  open  house  for  the  Virginia 
riders  in  return.  To  illustrate  how  thoroughly  the  habits  of 
slavery  were  infused  into  the  daily  life,  he  told  me  that  an 
other  of  these  Narraganset  magnates,  his  great -uncle,  Row 
land  Robinson,  said,  impulsively,  one  day,  "  I  have  not  servants 
enough ;  go  fetch  me  some  from  Guinea."  Upon  this  the 
master  of  a  small  packet  of  twenty  tons,  belonging  to  Mr. 
Robinson,  fitted  her  out  at  once,  set  sail  for  Guinea,  and 


238  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

brought  home  eighteen  slaves,  one  of  whom  was  a  king's  son. 
His  employer  burst  into  tears  on  their  arrival,  his  order  not 
having  been  seriously  given.  But  all  this  was  not  in  Mary^ 
land  or  Virginia;  it  was  in  Rhode  Island,  and  on  a  part  of 
Rhode  Island  so  much  a  place  of  resort  for  the  leading  Boston 
families  that  a  portion  of  it  is  called  Boston  Neck  to  this  day. 

These  descriptions  could  be  paralleled,  though  not  fully,  in 
all  the  Northern  colonies.  The  description  of  the  Schuyler 
family,  and  of  their  way  of  living  at  Albany,  as  given  by  Mrs. 
Grant  of  Laggan,  about  1750,  is  quite  on  a  par  with  these 
early  scenes  at  Narraganset.  In  Connecticut  it  is  recorded 
of  John  Peters,  father  of  the  early  and  malicious  historian  of 
that  name,  that  he  "  aped  the  style  of  a  British  nobleman,  built 
his  house  in  a  forest,  kept  his  coach,  and  looked  with  some 
degree  of  scorn  upon  republicans."  The  stone  house  of  the 
Lee  family  at  Marblehead  cost  ,£10,000;  the  house  of  God 
frey  Malbone  at  Newport  cost  ,£20,000;  the  Wentworth  house 
at  Portsmouth  had  fifty-two  rooms.  Through  all  the  colonies 
these  evidences,  of  a  stately  way  of  living  were  to  be  found. 

These  facts  are  unquestionable,  and  would  not  so  fully 
have  passed  out  of  sight  but  for  another  fact  never  yet  fully 
explained.  When  the  war  of  independence  came  it  made  no 
social  change  in  the  Southern  provinces,  but  it  made  a  social 
revolution  in  the  Northern  provinces.  For  some  reason,  per 
haps  only  for  the  greater  nearness  to  Nova  Scotia,  the  gentry 
of  New  England  took  the  loyal  side  and  fled,  while  the  gentry 
of  Virginia  fell  in  with  the  new  movement,  becoming  its  lead 
ers.  From  my  window,  as  I  write,  I  have  glimpses  of  some 
of  the  large  houses  of  "  Tory  Row,"  in  Cambridge,  where, 
according  to  the  contemporary  description  of  the  Baroness 
Riedesel,  seven  kindred  families  lived  in  the  greatest  luxury 
until  the  Revolution,  all  probably  slave-holders,  like  the  Vas- 
salls,  and  some  of  them  owning  plantations  in  Jamaica.  All 
fled,  most  of  their  estates  were  confiscated,  and  the  war  trans- 


THE  BRITISH  YOKE.  239 

ferred  the  leadership  of  the  New  England  colonies,  as  Pro 
fessor  Sumner  has  lately  well  shown  in  his  "  Life  of  Jackson,1' 
to  a  new  race  of  young  lawyers.  Hence  all  the  ante-Revolu 
tionary  life  disappeared,  and  was  soon  forgotten ;  slavery  dis 
appeared  also,  while  the  self -same  social  order  still  subsisted 
in  Virginia,  though  constantly  decaying,  until  a  more  recent 
war  brought  that  also  to  an  end. 

There  was  thus  less  of  social  difference  among  the  colo 
nies  than  is  often  assumed,  but  the  difference  in  municipal 
institutions  was  considerable.  Every  colony,  so  far  as  it  was 
left  free  to  do  it,  recognized  the  principle  of  popular  govern 
ment,  limiting  the  suffrage  by  age,  sex,  race,  or  property,  but 
recognizing  the  control  of  a  majority  of  qualified  electors  as 
binding.  As  a  rule,  this  gave  a  political  status  to  the  labor 
ing  class  in  the  Northern  colonies,  but  not  in  those  where 
slavery  prevailed  and  the  laboring  class  was  of  a  different  race. 
We  naturally  do  not  obtain  from  the  books  of  the  period  so 
clear  a  picture  of  the  lower  order  of  inhabitants  as  of  the 
higher;  perhaps  the  liveliest  is  to  be  found  in  the  description 
of  General  Riedesel,  where  he  represents  the  yeomen  of  New 
England  as  being  thickset,  tolerably  tall,  wearing  blue  frocks 
girt  by  a  strap,  and  having  their  heads  surmounted  by  yellow 
wigs,  "  with  the  honorable  visage  of  a  magistrate  beneath ;"  as 
being,  moreover,  rarely  able  to  write ;  inquisitive,  curious,  and 
zealous  to  madness  for  liberty.  These  were  the  people — as  seen, 
be  it  remembered,  through  the  vexed  eyes  of  a  defeated  prisoner 
— who  made  up  the  citizenship  of  the  Northern  colonies. 

It  is  certain  that  the  general  model  for  the  Colonial  gov 
ernments,  and  even  for  our  present  State  governments,  dates 
back  to  the  organization  of  the  Virginia  House  of  Burgesses, 
in  1619;  and  all  the  colonies  followed  the  same  principle,  with 
some  important  modifications.  But  when  it  came  to  the  gov 
ernment  of  small  local  communities  there  was  a  great  varia 
tion.  The  present  system  of  New  England  town  government 


240  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

had  its  beginning,  according  to  Professor  Joel  Parker,  in  the 
action  of  the  inhabitants  of  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  when 
they  adopted,  on  February  10,  1634-35,  an  order,  which  still 
stands  on  the  record -book,  "for  the  governm't  of  the  Towne 
by  Selectmen,"  thus  giving  to  eleven  persons,  "  wth  the  advice 
of  Pastor  and  teacher  desired  in  any  case  of  conscience,"  the 
authority  to  manage  their  local  affairs  for  one  year.  Since 
Professor  Parker  wrote,  however,  the  researches  of  the  Boston 
Record  Commission  have  brought  to  light  a  similar  grant  of 
power  by  the  planters  of  Dorchester  (Oct.  8,  1633),  authorizing 
twelve  men,  "  selected  of  the  company  "  to  have  charge  of  its 
affairs.  This  form  of  self-government,  which  could  be  per 
fectly  combined  with  the  existence  of  slavery  on  a  small  scale, 
was  inconsistent  with  a  system  of  great  plantations,  like  those 
in  the  Southern  colonies ;  and  it  was  this  fact  more  than  any 
thing  else  which  developed  such  difference  in  character  as 
really  existed.  The  other  fact  that  labor  was  held  in  more 
respect  in  the  Northern  colonies  than  in  the  Southern  had 
doubtless  something  to  do  with  it ;  but,  after  all,  there  was 
then  less  philosophizing  on  that  subject  than  now,  and  the 
main  influence  was  the  town  meeting.  When  John  Adams 
was  called  upon  by  Major  Langbourne  to  explain  the  differ 
ence  of  character  between  Virginia  and  New  England,  Mr. 
Adams  offered  to  give  him  a  receipt  for  creating  a  New  Eng 
land  in  Virginia.  It  consisted  of  four  points,  "  town  meetings, 
training-days,  town  schools,  and  ministers."  Each  colony  really 
based  its  local  institutions,  in  some  form,  on  English  traditions ; 
but  the  system  of  town  government,  as  it  prevailed  in  the  East 
ern  colonies,  has  struck  deepest  root,  and  has  largely  influ 
enced  the  new  civilization  of  the  West.  Thus,  with  varied 
preparation,  but  with  a  common  need  and  an  increasing  unity, 
the  several  colonies  approached  the  igth  of  April,  1775,  when 
the  shot  was  fired  that  was  "  heard  round  the  world." 


X. 

THE   DAWNING    OF  INDEPENDENCE. 

WHEN  France,  in  1763,  surrendered  Canada  to  England, 
it  suddenly  opened  men's  eyes  to  a  very  astonishing 
fact.  They  discovered  that  British  America  had  at  once  be 
come  a  country  so  large  as  to  make  England  seem  ridiculously 
small.  Even  the  cool-headed  Dr.  Franklin,  writing  that  same 
year  to  Mary  Stevenson  in  London,  spoke  of  England  as  "  that 
petty  island  which,  compared  to  America,  is  but  a  stepping- 
stone  in  a  brook,  scarce  enough  of  it  above  water  to  keep  one's 
shoes  dry/'  The  far-seeing  French  statesmen  of  the  period 
looked  at  the  matter  in  the  same  way.  Choiseul,  the  Prime- 
minister  who  ceded  Canada,  claimed  afterwards  that  he  had 
done  it  in  order  to  destroy  the  British  nation  by  creating  for  it 
a  rival.  This  assertion  was  not  made  till  ten  years  later,  and 
may  very  likely  have  been  an  after-thought,  but  it  was  destined 
to  be  confirmed  by  the  facts. 

We  have  now  to  deal  with  the  outbreak  of  a  contest  which 
was,  according  to  the  greatest  of  the  English  statesmen  of  the 
period,  "  a  most  accursed,  wicked,  barbarous,  cruel,  unnatural, 
unjust,  and  diabolical  war."  No  American  writer  ever  employed 
to  describe  it  a  combination  of  adjectives  so  vigorous  as  those 
here  brought  together  by  the  elder  Pitt,  afterwards  Lord  Chat 
ham.  The  rights  for  which  Americans  fought  seemed  to  them 
to  be  the  common  rights  of  Englishmen,  and  many  Englishmen 
thought  the  same.  On  the  other  hand,  we  are  now  able  to  do 

16 


242  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

justice  to  the  position  of  those  American  loyalists  who  honestly 
believed  that  the  attempt  at  independence  was  a  mad  one,  and 
who  sacrificed  all  they  had  rather  than  rebel  against  their  King. 
"  The  annals  of  the  world,"  wrote  Massachusettensis,  the  ablest 
Tory  pamphleteer  in  America,  "  have  not  been  deformed  with 
a  single  instance  of  so  unnatural,  so  causeless,  so  wanton,  so 
wicked  a  rebellion."  When  we  compare  this  string  of  epithets 
employed  upon  the  one  side  with  those  of  Pitt  upon  the  other, 
we  see  that  the  war  at  the  outset  was  not  so  much  a  contest  of 
nations  as  of  political  principles.  Some  of  the  ablest  men  in 
England  defended  the  American  cause ;  some  of  the  ablest  in 
the  colonies  took  the  loyal  side. 

Boston  in  the  winter  of  1774-75  was  a  town  of  some  17,000 
inhabitants,  garrisoned  by  some  3000  British  troops.  It  was 
the  only  place  in  the  Massachusetts  colony  where  the  royal 
governor  exercised  any  real  authority,  and  where  the  laws  of 
Parliament  had  any  force.  The  result  was  that  its  life  was 
paralyzed,  its  people  gloomy,  and  its  commerce  dead.  The 
other  colonies  were  still  hoping  to  obtain  their  rights  by  policy 
or  by  legislation,  by  refusing  to  import  or  to  consume,  and  they 
watched  with  constant  solicitude  for  some  riotous  demonstration 
in  Boston.  On  the  other  hand,  the  popular  leaders  in  that  town 
were  taking  the  greatest  pains  that  there  should  be  no  outbreak. 
There  was  risk  of  one  whenever  soldiers  were  sent  on  any  expe 
dition  into  the  country.  One  might  have  taken  place  at  Marsh- 
field  in  January,  one  almost  happened  at  Salem  in  February,  yet 
still  it  was  postponed.  No  publicity  was  given  to  the  patriotic 
military  organizations  in  Boston ;  as  little  as  possible  was  said 
about  the  arms  and  stores  that  were  gathered  in  the  country. 
Not  a  life  had  been  lost  in  any  popular  excitement  since  the 
Boston  Massacre  in  1770.  The  responsibility  of  the  first  shot, 
the  people  were  determined,  must  rest  upon  the  royal  troops. 
So  far  was  this  carried  that  it  was  honestly  attributed  by  the 
British  soldiers  to  cowardice  alone.  An  officer,  quoted  by 


THE  DAWNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


243 


PAUL    REVERE. 


Frothingham,  wrote  home  in  November,  1774:  "As  to  what 
you  hear  of  their  taking  arms  to  resist  the  force  of  England, 
it  is  mere  bullying,  and  will  go  no  farther  than  words ;  when 
ever  it  comes  to  blows,  he  that  can  run  the  fastest  will  think 
himself  best  off;  believe  me,  any  two  regiments  here  ought  to 
be  decimated  if  they  did  not  beat  in  the  field  the  whole  force 


244  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

of  the  Massachusetts  province ;  for  though  they  are  numerous, 
they  are  but  a  mere  mob,  without  order  or  discipline,  and  very 
awkward  at  handling  their  arms." 

But  whatever  may  have  been  the  hope  of  carrying  their 
point  without  fighting,  the  provincial  authorities  were  steadily 
collecting  provisions,  arms,  and  ammunition.  Unhappily  these 
essentials  were  hard  to  obtain.  On  April  19,  1775,  the  commit 
tees  of  safety  could  only  count  up  twelve  field-pieces  in  Massa 
chusetts ;  and  there  had  been  collected  in  that  colony  21,549 
fire-arms,  17,441  pounds  of  powder,  22,191  pounds  of  ball, 
144,699  flints,  10,108  bayonets,  11,979  pouches,  15,000  canteens. 
There  were  also  17,000  pounds  of  salt  fish,  35,000  pounds  of 
rice,  with  large  quantities  of  beef  and  pork.  Viewed  as  an 
evidence  of  the  forethought  of  the  colonists,  these  statistics  are 
remarkable ;  but  there  was  something  heroic  and  indeed  almost 
pathetic  in  the  project  of  going  to  war  with  the  British  govern 
ment  on  the  strength  of  twelve  field-pieces  and  seventeen  thou 
sand  pounds  of  salt  fish. 

Yet  when,  on  the  night  of  the  i8th  of  April,  1775,  Paul 
Revere  rode  beneath  the  bright  moonlight  through  Lexington 
to  Concord,  with  Dawes  and  Prescott  for  comrades,  he  was- 
carrying  the  signal  for  the  independence  of  a  nation.  He  had 
seen  across  the  Charles  River  the  two  lights  from  the  church- 
steeple  in  Boston  which  were  to  show  that  a  British  force  was 
going  out  to  seize  the  patriotic  supplies  at  Concord ;  he  had 
warned  Hancock  and  Adams  at  Rev.  Jonas  Clark's  parsonage 
in  Lexington,  and  had  rejected  Sergeant  Monroe's  caution 
against  unnecessary  noise,  with  the  rejoinder,  "  You'll  have 
noise  enough  here  before  long — the  regulars  are  coming  out/' 
As  he  galloped  on  his  way  the  regulars  were  advancing  with 
steady  step  behind  him,  soon  warned  of  their  own  danger 
by  alarm-bells  and  signal -guns.  When  Revere  was  captured 
by  some  British  officers  who  happened  to  be  near  Concord, 
Colonel  Smith,  the  commander  of  the  expedition,  had  already 


THE  DAWNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  24$ 

halted,  ordered  Pitcairn  forward,  and  sent  back  prudently  for 
reinforcements.  It  was  a  night  of  terror  to  all  the  neighbor 
ing  Middlesex  towns,  for  no  one  knew  what  excesses  the  angry 
British  troops  might  commit  on  their  return  march.  The  best 
picture  we  have  of  this  alarm  is  in  the  narrative  of  a  Cambridge 
woman,  Mrs.  Hannah  Winthrop,  describing  "  the  horrors  of  that 
midnight  cry,"  as  she  calls  it.  The  women  of  that  town  were 
roused  by  the  beat  of  drums  and  ringing  of  bells ;  they  hastily 
gathered  their  children  together  and  fled  to  the  outlying  farm 
houses  ;  seventy  or  eighty  of  them  were  at  Fresh  Pond,  within 
hearing  of  the  guns  at  Menotomy,  now  Arlington.  The  next 
day  their  husbands  bade  them  flee  to  Andover,  whither  the  col 
lege  property  had  been  sent,  and  thither  they  went,  alternately 
walking  and  riding,  over  fields  where  the  bodies  of  the  slain 
lay  unuuried. 

Before  5  A.M.  on  April  19,  1775,  the  British  troops  had 
reached  Lexington  Green,  where  thirty-eight  men,  under  Cap 
tain  Parker,  stood  up  before  six  hundred  or  eight  hundred  to 
be  shot  at,  their  captain  saying,  "  Don't  fire  unless  you  are  fired 
on;  but  if  they  want  a  war,  let  it  begin  here."  It  began  there; 
they  were  fired  upon;  they  fired  rather  ineffectually  in  return, 
while  seven  were  killed  and  nine  wounded.  The  rest,  after  re 
treating,  reformed  and  pursued  the  British  towards  Concord, 
capturing  seven  stragglers — the  first  prisoners  taken  in  the  war. 
Then  followed  the  fight  at  Concord,  where  four  hundred  and 
fifty  Americans,  instead  of  thirty-eight,  were  rallied  to  meet  the 
British.  The  fighting  took  place  between  two  detachments  at 
the  North  Bridge,  where 

"once  the  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world." 

There  the  American  captain,  Isaac  Davis,  was  killed  at  the  first 
shot — he  who  had  said,  when  his  company  was  placed  at  the 
head  of  the  little  column,  "  I  haven't  a  man  that  is  afraid  to  go." 


246 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 


LEXINGTON   GREEN. — "  IF   THEY  WANT   A   WAR,  LET   IT   BEGIN    HERE." 

He  fell,  and  Major  Buttrick  gave  the  order,  "  Fire !  for  God's 
sake,  fire !"  in  return.  The  British  detachment  retreated  in  dis 
order,  but  their  main  body  was  too  strong  to  be  attacked,  so 
they  disabled  a  few  cannon,  destroyed  some  barrels  of  flour,  cut 


THE  DA  WNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


247 


down  the  liberty-pole,  set  fire  to  the  court-house,  and  then  began 
their  return  march.  It  ended  in  a  flight;  they  were  exposed  to 
a  constant  guerilla  fire ;  minute-men  flocked  behind  every  tree 
and  house ;  and  only  the  foresight  of  Colonel  Smith  in  sending 
for  reinforcements  had  averted  a  surrender.  At  2  P.M.,  near 
Lexington,  Percy  with  his  troops  met  the  returning  fugitives,  and 
formed  a  hollow  square,  into  which  they  ran  and  threw  them 
selves  on  the  ground  exhausted.  Then  Percy  in  turn  fell  back. 
Militia  still  came  pouring 
in  from  Dorchester,  Milton, 
Dedham,  as  well  as  the 
nearer  towns.  A  company 
from  Danvers  marched  six 
teen  miles  in  four  hours. 
The  Americans  lost  ninety- 
three  in  killed,  wounded, 
and  missing  that  day  ;  the 
British,  two  hundred  and 
seventy-three.  But  the  im 
portant  result  was  that  ev 
ery  American  colony  now 
recognized  that  war  had 
begun. 

How  men's  minds  were 
affected    may    best    be    seen  DR.  JOSEPH  WARREN. 

by   a  glimpse    at   a  day   in 

the  life  of  one  leading  patriot.  Early  on  the  morning  of  the 
1 9th  of  April,  1775,  a  messenger  came  hastily  to  the  door  of 
Dr.  Joseph  Warren,  physician,  in  Boston,  and  chairman  of  the 
Boston  Committee  of  Safety,  with  the  news  that  there  had  been 
fighting  at  Lexington  and  Concord.  Dr.  Warren,  doing  first 
the  duty  that  came  nearest,  summoned  his  pupil,  Mr.  Eustis, 
and  directed  him  to  take  care  of  his  patients  for  that  day ;  then 
mounted  his  horse  and  rode  to  the  Charlestown  Ferry.  As  he 


248  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

entered  the  boat  he  remarked  to  an  acquaintance :  "  Keep  up  a 
brave  heart.  They  have  begun  it — that,  either  party  can  do; 
and  we'll  end  it  —  that,  only  we  can  do."  After  landing  in 
Charlestown  he  met  a  certain  Dr.  Welch,  who  says,  in  a  manu 
script  statement :  "  Eight  o'clock  in  the  morning  saw  Dr.  Joseph 
Warren  just  come  out  of  Boston,  horseback.  I  said, '  Well,  they 


GENERAL    WILLIAM    HEATH. 


are  gone  out.'  '  Yes,'  he  said,  '  and  we  will  be  up  with  them  be 
fore  night.'"  Apparently  the  two  physicians  jogged  on  together, 
tried  to  pass  Lord  Percy's  column  of  reinforcements,  but  were 
stopped  by  bayonets.  Then  Dr.  Welch  went  home,  and  Dr. 
Warren  probably  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Committee  of 
Safety,  held  "  at  the  Black  Horse  in  Menotomy,"  or  West  Cam- 


THE  DA  WNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  249 

bridge.  This  committee  had  authority  from  the  Provincial 
Congress  to  order  out  the  militia,  and  General  Heath,  who  was 
a  member  of  the  committee,  rode  to  take  command  of  the  pro 
vincials,  with  Warren  by  his  side,  who  was  sufficiently  exposed 
that  day  to  have  a  musket -ball  strike  the  pin  out  of  the  hair 
of  his  ear-lock.  The  two  continued  together  till  the  British 
army  had  crossed  Charlestown  Neck  on  its  retreat,  and  made 
a  stand  on  Bunker  Hill.  There  they  were  covered  by  the 
ships.  The  militia  were  ordered  to  pursue  no  further,  and 
General  Heath  held  the  first  council  of  war  of  the  Revolution 
at  the  foot  of  Prospect  Hill. 

With  the  fervor  of  that  day's  experience  upon  him  Warren 
wrote,  on  the  day  following,  this  circular  to  the  town  in  behalf 
of  the  Committee  of  Safety.  The  original  still  exists  in  the 
Massachusetts  archives,  marked  with  much  interlineation. 

•'  GENTLEMEN, — The  barbarous  murders  committed  on  our  innocent  breth 
ren  on  Wednesday,  the  iQth  instant,  have  made  it  absolutely  necessary  that  we 
immediately  raise  an  army  to  defend  our  wives  and  our  children  from  the 
butchering  hands  of  an  inhuman  soldiery,  who,  incensed  at  the  obstacles  they 
met  with  in  their  bloody  progress,  and  enraged  at  being  repulsed  from  the  field 
of  slaughter,  will  without  the  least  doubt  take  the  first  opportunity  in  their  pow 
er  to  ravage  this  devoted  country  with  fire  and  sword.  We  conjure  you,  there 
fore,  by  all  that  is  dear,  by  all  that  is  sacred,  that  you  give  all  assistance  possi 
ble  in  forming  an  army.  Our  all  is  at  stake.  Death  and  devastation  are  the 
instant  consequences  of  delay.  Every  moment  is  infinitely  precious.  An  hour 
lost  may  deluge  your  country  in  blood,  and  entail  perpetual  slavery  upon  the 
few  of  your  posterity  who  may  survive  the  carnage.  We  beg  and  entreat,  as 
you  will  answer  to  your  country,  to  your  own  consciences,  and,  above  all,  as  you 
will  answer  to  God  himself,  that  you  will  hasten  and  encourage  by  all  possible 
means  the  enlistment  of  men  to  form  the  army,  and  send  them  forward  to  head 
quarters  at  Cambridge  with  that  expedition  which  the  vast  importance  /.ml  in 
stant  urgency  of  the  affair  demand." 

It  is  always  hard  to  interpret  the  precise  condition  of  public 
feeling  just  before  a  war.  It  is  plain  that  the  Massachusetts 
committee  expected  something  more  than  a  contest  of  words 
when  they  made  so  many  preparations.  On  the  other  hand,  it 
is  evident  that  hardly  any  one  looked  forward  to  any  serious 


250 


HISTORY  OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 


and  prolonged  strife.     Dr.  Warren  wrote,  soon  after   the 
of  April :  "  The  people  never  seemed  in  earnest  about  the  mat 
ter  until  after  the  engagement  of  the  igth  ult,  and  I  verily  be- 


FAC-SIMILE   OF    WARREN'S   ADDRESS. 


lieve  that  the  night  preceding  the  barbarous  outrages  commit 
ted  by  the  soldiery  at  Lexington,  Concord,  etc.,  there  were  not 
fifty  people  in  the  whole  colony  that  ever  expected  any  blood 
would  be  shed  in  the  contest  between  us  and  Great  Britain." 


THE  DAWNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  251 

Yet  two  days  after  the  fight  at  Lexington  the  Massachusetts 
Committee  of  Safety  resolved  to  enlist  eight  thousand  men. 
Two  days  after  that  the  news  reached  New  York  at  noon. 
There  was  a  popular  outbreak ;  the  royal  troops  were  disarmed, 
the  fort  and  magazines  seized,  and  two  transports  for  Boston 
unloaded.  At  five  on  Monday  afternoon  the  tidings  reached 
Philadelphia,  when  the  bell  in  Independence  Hall  was  rung, 
and  the  people  gathered  in  numbers.  When  it  got  so  far  as 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  the  people  seized  the  arsenal,  and 
the  Provincial  Congress  proclaimed  them  "  ready  to  sacrifice 
their  lives  and  fortunes."  In  Savannah,  Georgia,  a  mob  took 
possession  of  the  powder-magazine,  and  raised  a  liberty -pole. 
In  Kentucky  a  party  of  hunters,  hearing  of  the  battle,  gave 
their  encampment  the  name  of  Lexington,  which  it  still  bears ; 
and  thus  the  news  went  on. 

Meanwhile,  on  May  loth,  the  Continental  Congress  con 
vened,  and  on  the  same  day  Ethan  Allen  took  possession  of 
the  strong  fortress  of  Ticonderoga.  It  was  the  first  act  of 
positive  aggression  by  the  patriotic  party,  for  at  both  Lexing 
ton  and  Concord  they  were  acting  on  the  defensive.  The  ex 
pedition  was  planned  in  Connecticut  and  reinforced  in  West 
ern  Massachusetts,  but  the  main  reliance  was  to  be  placed  on 
Ethan  Allen  and  his  "  Green  Mountain  Boys,"  whose  daring 
and  energy  were  already  well  known.  Benedict  Arnold,  who 
had  been  commissioned  in  Massachusetts  for  the  same  purpose, 
arrived  only  in  time  to  join  the  expedition  as  a  volunteer.  On 
May  10,  1775,  eighty-three  men  crossed  the  lake  with  Allen. 
When  they  had  landed,  he  warned  them  that  it  was  a  dangerous 
-enterprise,  and  called  for  volunteers.  Every  man  volunteered. 
The  rest  took  but  a  few  moments.  They  entered  with  a  war- 
whoop  the  open  wicket-gate,  pressing  by  the  sentinel,  and  when 
the  half-clad  commander  appeared  and  asked  their  authority, 
Allen  answered  with  the  words  that  have  become  historic,  "In 
the  name  of  the  great  Jehovah  and  the  Continental  Congress." 


252  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

The  Congress  was  only  to  meet  that  day,  but  it  appeared  al 
ready  to  be  exercising  a  sort  of  antenatal  authority ;  and  a  for 
tress  which  had  cost  eight  million  pounds  sterling  and  many 
lives  was  placed  in  its  hands  by  a  mere  stroke  of  boldness. 
Crown  Point  gave  itself  up  with  equal  ease  to  Seth  Warner,  and 
another  dramatic  surprise  was  given  to  the  new-born  nation. 

In  the  neighborhood  of  Boston  the  month  of  May  was  de 
voted  to  additional  preparations,  and  to  what  are  called,  in  the 
old  stage  directions  of  Shakespeare's  plays,  "  alarums  and  excur 
sions."  At  one  time,  when  a  sally  from  Boston  was  expected, 
the  Committee  of  Safety  ordered  the  officers  of  the  ten  nearest 
towns  to  assemble  one-half  the  militia  and  all  the  minute-men, 
and  march  to  Roxbury.  While  this  was  being  done,  General 
Thomas,  with  an  ingenuity  quite  in  the  style  of  the  above  stage 
motto,  marched  his  seven  hundred  men  round  and  round  a  high 
hill,  visible  from  Boston,  to  mislead  the  British.  At  another 
time,  when  men  were  more  numerous,  General  Putnam  marched 
all  the  troops  in  Cambridge,  twenty-two  hundred  in  number,  to 
Charlestown  Ferry,  the  column  being  spread  over  a  mile  and  a 
half,  and  passing  under  the  guns  of  the  British  without  attack. 
At  another  time,  "  all  of  Weymouth,  Braintree,  and  Hingham," 
according  to  Mrs.  Adams,  turned  out  to  drive  away  a  British 
detachment  from  Grape  Island,  where  the  Americans  then 
landed,  burned  a  quantity  of  hay,  and  brought  away  cattle.  A 
larger  skirmish  took  place  at  Noddle's  Island,  now  East  Bos 
ton,  where  the  Americans  destroyed  a  schooner,  dismantled  a 
sloop,,  and  captured  twelve  swivels  and  four  4-pound  cannon. 
Putnam  commanded  in  this  engagement,  and  the  enthusiasm 
which  it  called  out  secured  his  unanimous  election  as  major- 
general. 

Meantime  the  Provincial  troops  were  gathering  for  what 
the  Essex  Gazette,  of  June  8th,  called,  with  rather  premature 
admiration,  "  the  grand  American  army " — an  army  whose  re 
turns  for  June  gth  showed  7644  men.  "  Nothing  could  be  in 


THE  DAWNING   OF  INDEPENDENCE.  253 

a  more  confused  state,"  wrote  Dr.  Eliot,  "  than  the  army  which 
first  assembled  at  Cambridge.  This  undisciplined  body  of  men 
were  kept  together  by  a  few  who  deserved  well  of  their  coun 
try."  President  John  Adams,  writing  long  after  (June  19,  1818), 
thus  summed  up  the  condition  of  these  forces : 

"  The  army  at  Cambridge  was  not  a  national  army,  for  there  was  no  nation. 
It  was  not  a  United  States  army,  for  there  were  no  United  States.  It  was  not 
an  army  of  united  colonies,  for  it  could  not  be  said  in  any  sense  that  the  col 
onies  were  united.  The  centre  of  their  union,  the  Congress  of  Philadelphia, 
had  not  adopted  nor  acknowledged  the  army  at  Cambridge.  It  was  not  a  New 
England  army,  for  New  England  had  not  associated.  New  England  had  no 
legal  legislature,  nor  any  common  executive  authority,  even  upon  the  principles 
•of  original  authority,  or  even  of  original  power  .in  the  people.  Massachusetts 
had  her  army,  Connecticut  her  army,  New  Hampshire  her  army,  and  Rhode 
Island  her  army.  These  four  armies  met  at  Cambridge,  and  imprisoned  the 
British  army  in  Boston.  But  who  was  the  sovereign  of  this  united,  or  rather 
•congregated,  army,  and  who  its  commander-in-chief  ?  It  had  none.  Putnam, 
Poor,  and  Greene  were  as  independent  of  Ward  as  Ward  was  of  them." 

This  was  the  state  of  the  forces  outside,  while  the  army  in 
side  was  impatiently  waiting  for  reinforcements,  and  chafing  at 
the  ignoble  delay.  On  May  25th  three  British  generals  (Howe, 
Clinton,  and  Burgoyne)  arrived  with  troops.  The  newspapers 
of  the  day  say  that  when  these  officers  were  going  into  Boston 
harbor  they  met  a  packet  coming  out,  when  General  Burgoyne 
asked  the  skipper  of  the  packet  what  news  there  was.  And 
being  told  that  the  town  was  surrounded  by  ten  thousand  coun 
try  people,  asked  how  many  regulars  there  were  in  Boston ;  and 
being  answered,  "About  five  thousand,"  cried  out,  with  aston 
ishment,  "  What !  and  ten  thousand  peasants  keep  five  thousand 
king's  troops  shut  up!  Well,  let  us  get  in,  and  we'll  soon  find 
elbow-room."  After  this  conversation  the  nickname  of  "  Elbow- 
room  "  was  permanently  fastened  on  General  Burgoyne.  He 
used  to  relate  that  after  his  reverses,  while  a  prisoner  of  war, 
he  was  received  with  great  courtesy  by  the  people  of  Boston  as 
he  stepped  from  the  Charlestown  ferry-boat,  but  was  a  little  an 
noyed  when  an  old  lady,  perched  on  a  shed  above  the  crowd, 


254  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

cried  out  in  a  shrill  voice,  "  Make  way !  make  way !     The  gen 
eral's  coming ;  give  him  elbow-room." 

Two  days  before  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill,  Mrs.  Adams 
wrote  to  her  husband,  John  Adams :  "  Gage's  proclamation  you 
will  receive  by  this  conveyance,  and  the  records  of  time  cannot 
produce  a  blacker  page.  Satan  when  driven  from  the  realms 
of  bliss  exhibited  not  more  malice.  Surely  the  father  of  lies  is 
superseded.  Yet  we  think  it  the  best  proclamation  he  could 
have  issued."  This  proclamation  announced  martial  law,  but 
offered  pardon  to  those  who  would  give  in  their  allegiance  to 
the  government,  "  excepting  only  from  the  benefit  of  such  par 
don  Samuel  Adams  and  John  Hancock,  whose  offences  are  of 
too  flagitious  a  nature  to  admit  of  any  other  consideration  than 
that  of  condign  punishment."  He  afterwards  remarked  that  the 
rebels  added  "  insult  to  outrage  "  as,  "  with  a  preposterous  pa 
rade  of  military  arrangement,  they  affected  to  hold  the  army 
besieged." 

Two  things  contributed  to  bring  about  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill :  the  impatience  of  British  troops  under  the  "  affectation  " 
of  a  siege;  on  the  other  hand,  the  great  increase  of  self-confi 
dence  among  the  provincials  after  Lexington  and  Concord.  It 
was  a  military  necessity,  no  doubt,  for  each  side,  to  occupy  the 
Charlestown  heights ;  but  there  was  also  a  growing  disposition 
to  bring  matters  to  a  crisis  on  the  first  favorable  opportunity. 
Captain  (afterwards  Lord)  Harris  wrote  home  to  England  (June 
1 2th):  "I  wish  the  Americans  may  be  brought  to  a  sense  of 
their  duty.  One  good  drubbing,  which  I  long  to  give  them  by 
way  of  retaliation,  might  have  a  good  effect  towards  it."  Dr.. 
Warren,  on  the  other  hand,  wrote  (May  i6th)  that  if  General 
Gage  would  only  make  a  sally  from  Boston,  he  would  "  gratify 
thousands  who  impatiently  wait  to  avenge  the  blood  of  their 
murde^a  countrymen."  With  such  dispositions  on  both  sides, 
the  collision  could  not  be  far  off.  Kinglake  says  that  the  rea- 
%sons  for  a  battle  rarely  seem  conclusive  except  to  a  general  who 

V 


THE  DAWNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE. 


255 


has  some  positive  taste  for  fighting.  Had  not  something  of 
this  impulse  existed  on  both  sides  in  1775,  the  American  rebels 
would  probably  not  have  fortified  Bunker  Hill,  or  the  English 
general  might  have  besieged  and  starved  them  out  without  firing 
a  shot. 


SAMUEL  ADAMS. 


It  is  needless  to  add  another  to  the  innumerable  descriptions 
of  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Every  Englishman  who  comes  to 
America  feels  renewed  astonishment  that  a  monument  should 
have  been  built  on  the  scene  of  a  defeat.  Every  American 
school -boy  understands  that  the  monument  celebrates  a  fact 


256  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

more  important  than  most  victories,  namely,  that  the  raw  pro 
vincials  faced  the  British  army  for  two  hours,  they  themselves 
being  under  so  little  organization  that  it  is  impossible  to  tell 
even  at  this  day  who  was  their  commander;  that  they  did  this 
with  only  the  protection  of  an  unfinished  earthwork  and  a  rail 
fence,  retreating  only  when  their  powder  was  out.  Tried  by 
the  standards  of  regular  warfare  even  at  that  day,  a  breastwork 
twice  that  of  Bunker  Hill  would  have  been  accounted  but  a 
moderate  obstacle.  When  in  the  previous  century  the  fright 
ened  citizens  of  Dorchester,  England,  had  asked  a  military  en 
gineer  whether  their  breastworks  could  resist  Prince  Rupert's 
soldiers,  he  answered,  "  I  have  seen  them  running  up  walls  twen 
ty  feet  high ;  these  defences  of  yours  may  possibly  keep  them 
out  half  an  hour."  The  flimsy  defences  of  Bunker  Hill  kept 
back  General  Howe's  soldiers  for  two  hours,  and  until  the  un 
tried  provincials  had  fired  their  last  shot.  It  was  a  fact  worth 
a  monument. 

The  best  descriptions  of  the  battle  itself  are  to  be  found  in 
the  letters  of  provincial  officers  and  soldiers  preserved  in  the 
appendix  to  Richard  Frothingham's  "  Siege  of  Boston."  It  is 
the  descriptions  of  raw  soldiers  that  are  always  most  graphic ; 
as  they  grow  more  familiar  with  war,  their  narratives  grow  tame. 
It  is  a  sufficient  proof  of  the  impression  made  in  England  by 
the  affair  that  the  newspapers  of  that  nation,  instead  of  being 
exultant,  were  indignant  or  apologetic,  and  each  had  its  own 
theory  in  regard  to  "  the  innumerable  errors  of  that  day,"  as  the 
London  Chronicle  called  them.  Tried  by  this  test  of  contem 
porary  criticism,  the  Americans  do  not  seem  to  have  exagger 
ated  the  real  importance  of  the  event.  "  The  ministerial  troops 
gained  the  hill,"  wrote  William  Tudor  to  John  Adams,  "  but 
were  victorious  losers.  A  few  more  such  victories,  and  they 
are  undone."  By  the  official  accounts  these  troops  lost  in  killed 
and  wounded  1054 — about  one  in  four  of  their  number,  including 
an  unusually  large  proportion  of  officers — while  the  Americans 


THE  DAWNING  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  257 

lost  but  half  as  many,  about  450,  out  of  a  total  of  from  two  to 
three  thousand.  But  the  numbers  were  nothing;  the  fact  that 
the  provincials  had  resisted  regular  troops  was  everything. 

The  "  great  American  army "  was  still  growing  at  Cam 
bridge  ;  it  had  been  adopted  by  Congress,  even  before  the  bat 
tle,  and  George  Washington,  of  Virginia,  had  been  unanimously 
placed  in  command,  by  recommendation  of  the  New  England 
delegates.  He  assumed  this  authority  beneath  the  historic 
elm -tree  at  Cambridge,  July  3,  1775.  On  the  gih  he  held  a 
council  of  war  of  the  newly  organized  general  officers.  The 
whole  force  was  still  from  New  England,  and  consisted  of 
16,770  infantry  and  585  artillerymen.  These  were  organized 
in  three  divisions,  each  comprising  two  brigades,  usually  of  six 
regiments  each.  They  had  a  long  series  of  posts  to  garrison, 
and  they  had  nine  rounds  of  ammunition  per  man.  Worst  of 
all,  they  were  still,  in  the  words  of  Washington,  "  a  mixed  mul 
titude  of  people,  under  very  little  discipline."  Their  whole  ap 
pearance  under  the  new  organization  may  be  best  seen  from  the 
contemporary  description  by  the  Rev.  William  Emerson,  grand 
father  of  our  great  poet  and  essayist : 

"  There  is  great  overturning  in  the  camp,  as  to  order  and  regularity.  New 
lords,  n$w  laws.  The  Generals  Washington  and  Lee  are  upon  the  lines  every 
-day.  New  orders  from  his  Excellency  are  read  to  the  respective  regiments  every 
morning  after  prayers.  The  strictest  government  is  taking  place,  and  great  dis 
tinction  is  made  between  officers  and  soldiers.  Every  one  is  made  to  know  his 
place,  and  keep  in  it,  or  be  tied  up  and  receive  thirty  or  forty  lashes,  according 
to  his  crime.  Thousands  are  at  work  every  day  from  four  till  eleven  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  It  is  surprising  how  much  work  has  been  done.  The  lines  are 
extended  almost  from  Cambridge  to  Mystic  River,  so  that  very  soon  it  will  be 
morally  impossible  for  the  enemy  to  get  between  the  works,  except  in  one  place, 
which  is  supposed  to  be  left  purposely  unfortified  to  entice  the  enemy  out  of 
their  fortresses.  Who  would  have  thought,  twelve  months  past,  that  all  Cam 
bridge  and  Charlestown  would  be  covered  over  with  American  camps  and  cut 
up  into  forts  and  intrenchments,  and  all  the  lands,  fields,  orchards,  laid  common 
— horses  and  cattle  feeding  in  the  choicest  mowing  land,  whole  fields  of  corn 
eaten  down  to  the  ground,  and  large  parks  of  well-regulated  locusts  cut  down 
for  firewood  and  other  public  uses  !  This,  I  must  say,  looks  a  little  melan 
choly.  My  quarters  are  at  the  foot  of  the  famous  Prospect  Hill,  where  such 

17 


258  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

great  preparations  are  made  for  the  reception  of  the  enemy.  It  is  very  divert 
ing  to  walk  among  the  camps.  They  are  as  different  in  their  form  as  the  own 
ers  are  in  their  dress  \  and  every  tent  is  a  portraiture  of  the  temper  and  taste 
of  the  persons  who  encamp  in  it.  Some  are  made  of  boards,  and  some  of  sail 
cloth.  Some  partly  of  one,  and  some  partly  of  the  other.  Again,  others  are 
made  of  stone  and  turf,  brick  or  brush.  Some  are  thrown  up  in  a  hurry ;  oth 
ers  curiously  wrought  with  doors  and  windows,  done  with  wreaths  and  withes, 
in  the  manner  of  a  basket.  Some  are  your  proper  tents  and  marquees,  looking 
like  the  regular  camp  of  the  enemy.  In  these  are  the  Rhode-Islanders,  who 
are  furnished  with  tent  equipage  and  everything  in  the  most  exact  English 
style.  However,  I  think  this  great  variety  is  rather  a  beauty  than  a  blemish 
in  the  army." 

All  that  was  experienced  on  both  sides  at  the  beginning  of 
the  late  American  civil  war,  in  respect  to  rawness  of  soldiery, 
inexperienced  officers,  short  enlistments,  local  jealousies,  was 
equally  known  in  the  early  Continental  army,  and  was  less 
easily  remedied.  Even  the  four  New  England  colonies  that 
supplied  the  first  troops  were  distrustful  of  one  another  and  of 
Washington,  and  this  not  without  some  apparent  reason.  In  a 
state  of  society  which,  as  has  been  shown,  was  essentially  aris 
tocratic,  they  had  suddenly  lost  their  leaders.  Nearly  one-third 
of  the  community,  including  almost  all  those  to  whom  social 
deference  had  been  paid,  had  taken  what  they  called  the  loyal, 
and  others  the  Tory,  side.  Why  should  this  imported  Virgin 
ian  be  more  trustworthy?  Washington  in  turn  hardly  did  jus 
tice  to  the  material  with  which  he  had  to  deal.  He  found  that 
in  Massachusetts,  unlike  Virginia,  the  gentry  were  loyal  to  the 
King;  those  with  whom  he  had  to  consult  were  mainly  farmers 
and  mechanics — a  class  such  as  hardly  existed  in  Virginia,  and 
which  was  then  far  rougher  and  less  intelligent  than  the  same 
class  now  is.  They  were  obstinate,  suspicious,  jealous.  They 
had  lost  their  natural  leaders,  the  rich  men,  the  royal  council 
lors,  the  judges,  and  had  to  take  up  with  new  and  improvised 
guides — physicians  like  Warren — "  Doctor-general  "  Warren,  as 
the  British  officers  called  him, — or  skilled  mechanics  like  Paul 
Revere,  or  unemployed  lawyers  and  business  men  like  those 


THE  DAWNING   OF  INDEPENDENCE.  259 

whom  Governor  Shirley  described  as  "  that  brace  of  Adamses/' 
The  few  men  of  property  and  consequence  who  stood  by  them, 
as  Hancock  and  Prescott,  were  the  exceptions.  There  were 
few  on  the  patriotic  side  of  whom  it  could  be  said,  as  Hutch  in- 
son  said  of  Oxenbridge  Thacher,  "  He  was  not  born  a  plebeian, 
but  he  was  resolved  to  die  one."  Their  line  officers  were  men 
taken  almost  at  random  from  among  themselves,  sometimes 
turning  out  admirably,  sometimes  shamefully.  Washington 
cashiered  a  colonel  and  five  captains  for  cowardice  or  dishonesty 
during  the  first  summer.  The  Continental  army  as  it  first  as 
sembled  in  Cambridge  was,  as  was  said  of  another  army  on  a 
later  occasion,  an  aggregation  of  town -meetings,  and,  which  is 
worse,  of  town-meetings  from  which  all  the  accustomed  leaders 
had  suddenly  been  swept  away.  No  historian  has  yet  fully  por 
trayed  the  extent  to  which  this  social  revolution  in  New  Eng 
land  embarrassed  all  the  early  period  of  the  war,  or  shown  how 
it  made  the  early  Continental  troops  chafe  under  Washington 
and  Schuyler,  and  prefer  in  their  secret  souls  to  be  led  by  Gen 
eral  Putnam,  whom  they  could  call  "  Old  Put,"  and  who  rode  to 
battle  in  his  shirt-sleeves. 

And,  on  the  other  hand,  we  can  now  see  that  there  was  some 
foundation  for  these  criticisms  on  Washington.  With  the  high 
est  principle  and  the  firmest  purpose,  his  views  of  military  gov 
ernment  were  such  as  no  American  army  in  these  days  would 
endure  for  a  month.  His  methods  were  simply  despotic.  He 
thought  that  the  Massachusetts  Provincial  Legislature  should 
impress  men  into  the  Revolutionary  army,  should  provide  them 
with  food  and  clothes  only,  not  with  pay,  and  should  do  nothing 
for  their  families.  He  himself,  having  declined  the  offered  $500 
per  month,  served  his  country  for  his  expenses  only,  and  so,  he 
J  thought,  should  they,  overlooking  the  difference  between  those 
whose  households  depended  only  on  themselves,  and  those  who, 
like  himself,  had  left  slaves  at  work  on  their  broad  plantations. 
He  thought  that  officers  and  men  should  be  taken  from  differ- 


260  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

ent  social  classes,  that  officers  should  have  power  almost  abso 
lute,  and  that  camp  offences  should  be  punished  by  the  lash. 
These  imperial  methods  produced  a  good  effect,  on  the  whole ; 
probably  it  was  best  that  the  general  should  err  on  one  side  if 
the  army  erred  on  the  other.  But  there  is  no  doubt  that  much 
of  the  discontent,  the  desertion,  the  uncertain  enlistments,  of 
the  next  two  years  proceeded  from  the  difficulty  found  by  Wash 
ington  in  adapting  himself  to  the  actual  condition  of  the  people, 
especially  the  New  England  people.  It  is  the  highest  proof  of 
his  superiority  that  he  overcame  not  merely  all  other  obstacles, 
but  even  his  own  mistakes. 

Such  as  it  was,  the  army  remained  in  camp  long  enough  to 
make  everybody  impatient.  The  delay  was  inevitable ;  it  was 
easier  to  provide  even  discipline  than  powder;  the  troops  kept 
going  and  coming  because  of  short  enlistments,  and  more  than 
once  the  whole  force  was  reduced  to  ten  thousand  men.  With 
that  patience  which  was  one  of  Washington's  strongest  military 
qualities  he  withstood  dissatisfaction  within  and  criticism  from 
without  until  the  time  had  come  to  strike  a  heavier  blow. 
Then,  in  a  single  night,  he  fortified  Dorchester  Heights,  and 
this  forced  the  evacuation  of  Boston.  The  British  generals  had 
to  seek  elbow-room  elsewhere.  They  left  Boston  March  17, 
1776,  taking  with  them  twelve  hundred  American  loyalists,  the 
bulk  of  what  called  itself  "society"  in  New  England.  The 
navy  went  to  Halifax,  the  army  to  New  York,  whither  Wash 
ington  soon  took  his  Continental  army  also.  Once  there,  he 
found  new  obstacles.  From  the  very  fact  that  they  had  not  sent 
away  their  loyalists,  there  was  less  of  unanimity  among  the  New 
York  people,  nor  had  they  been  so  well  trained  by  the  French 
and  Indian  wars.  The  New  England  army  was  now  away  from 
home ;  it  was  unused  to  marches  or  evolutions,  but  it  had 
learned  some  confidence  in  itself  and  in  its  commander,  though 
it  did  not  always  do  credit  to  either.  It  was  soon  reinforced 
by  troops  from  the  Middle  States,  but  a  period  of  disaster  fol- 


SERGEANT   JASPER   AT   THE    BATTLE   OF    FORT    MOULTR1E. 


•t  tmm 

UNIVERSITY 


THE  DA  \VXIXG  OF  INDEPENDENCE.  263 

lowed,  which  severely  tested  the  generalship  of  Washington. 
He  no  longer  had,  as  in  Massachusetts,  all  the  loyalists  shut 
up  in  the  opposing  camp ;  he  found  them  scattered  through  the 
community.  Long  Island  was  one  of  their  strongholds,  and  re 
ceived  the  Continental  army  much  less  cordially  than  the  Brit 
ish  army  was  received  at  Staten  Island.  The  Hudson  River 
was  debatable  ground  between  opposing  factions;  Washington's 
own  military  family  held  incipient  traitors.  The  outlook  was 
not  agreeable  in  any  direction,  at  least  in  the  Northern  colonies, 
where  the  chief  contest  lay. 

There  was  a  disastrous  advance  into  Canada,  under  Mont 
gomery  and  Arnold,  culminating  in  the  defeat  before  Quebec 
December  30,  1775,  and  the  retreat  conducted  the  next  spring 
by  Thomas  and  Sullivan.  It  was  clearly  a  military  repulse,  but 
it  was  a  great  comfort  to  John  Adams,  locking  from  the  re 
moteness  of  Philadelphia,  to  attribute  all  to  a  quite  subordinate 
cause.  u  Our  misfortunes  in  Canada,"  he  wrote  to  his  wife,  June 
26,  1776,  "are  enough  to  melt  a  heart  of  stone.  The  small-pox 
is  ten  times  more  terrible  than  Britons,  Canadians,  and  Indians 
together.  This  was  the  cause  of  our  precipitate  retreat  from 
Quebec."  Thus  was  disappointment  slightly  mitigated ;  but  in 
the  Carolinas,  about  the  same  time,  it  was  the  British  who  were 
disappointed,  and  the  defence  of  Fort  Moultrie  especially  gave 
comfort  to  all  the  patriotic  party.  It  was  a  brilliant  achieve 
ment,  where  the  fate  of  Charleston  and  the  Carolinas  was  deter 
mined  by  the  defence  of  a  fortress  of  palmetto  logs,  manned  by 
less  than  five  hundred  men,  under  Moultrie,  aided  by  Motte, 
Marion,  and  the  since -renowned  Sergeant  Jasper.  They  had 
thirty-one  cannon,  but  only  a  scanty  supply  of  powder.  Over 
them  waved  a  flag  of  blue,  with  a  crescent  inscribed  "  Liberty." 
Against  them  was  a  squadron  of  British  ships,  some  of  them 
carrying  fifty  guns ;  and  they  defended  themselves  so  success 
fully  for  ten  hours  that  the  British  invasion  was  checked  and 
then  abandoned.  This  happened  on  June  28,  1776,  just  in 


264  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

time  to  counteract  the  discouragement  that  came  from  the  fatal 
Canadian  campaign. 

The  encouragement  was  needed.  Just  before  the  time 
when  the  Continental  Congress  had  begun  its  preliminary 
work  on  the  great  Declaration,  General  Joseph  Reed,  the  newly 
appointed  adjutant -general,  and  one  of  Washington's  most 
trusted  associates,  was  writing  thus  from  the  field  : 

"With  an  army  of  force  before,  and  a  secret  one  behind,  we  stand  on  a 
point  of  land  with  six  thousand  old  troops,  if  a  year's  service  of  about  half  can 
entitle  them  to  this  name,  and  about  fifteen  hundred  raw  levies  of  the  province, 
many  disaffected  and  more  doubtful.  Every  man,  from  the  general  to  the 
private,  acquainted  with  our  true  situation,  is  exceedingly  discouraged.  Had 
I  known  the  true  posture  of  affairs,  no  consideration  would  have  tempted  me 
to  take  part  in  this  scene ;  and  this  sentiment  is  universal." 


XI. 

THE   GREAT  DECLARATION. 

IN  the  days  of  the  Continental  Congress  the  delegates  used 
to  travel  to  the  capital,  at  the  beginning  of  each  session, 
from  their  several  homes,  usually  on  horseback ;  fording 
streams,  sleeping  at  miserable  country  inns,  sometimes  weath 
er-bound  for  days,  sometimes  making  circuits  to  avoid  threat 
ened  dangers,  sometimes  accomplishing  forced  marches  to 
reach  Philadelphia  in  time  for  some  special  vote.  There  lie 
before  me  the  unpublished  papers  of  one  of  the  signers  of  the 
great  Declaration,  and  these  papers  comprise  the  diaries  of 
several  such  journeys.  Their  simple  records  rarely  include 
bursts  of  patriotism  or  predictions  of  national  glory,  but  they 
contain  many  plaintive  chronicles  of  bad  beds  and  worse  food, 
mingled  with  pleasant  glimpses  of  wayside  chat,  and  now  and 
then  a  bit  of  character-painting  that  recalls  the  jovial  narra 
tives  of  Fielding.  Sometimes  they  give  a  passing  rumor  of 
"the  glorious  news  of  the  surrendering  of  the  Colonel  of  the 
Queen's  Dragoons  with  his  whole  army,"  but  more  commonly 
they  celebrate  "  milk  toddy  and  bread  and  butter  "  after  a  wet 
ting,  or  "  the  best  dish  of  Bohea  tea  I  have  drank  for  a  twelve 
month."  When  they  arrived  at  Philadelphia,  the  delegates 
put  up  their  horses,  changed  their  riding  gear  for  those  gar 
ments  which  Trumbull  has  immortalized,  and  gathered  to  In 
dependence  Hall  to  greet  their  brother  delegates,  to  inter 
change  the  gossip  of  the  day,  to  repeat  Dr.  Franklin's  last 


266 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


TRUMBULL'S  "SIGNING  OF  THE  DECLARATION." 

anecdote  or  Francis  Hopkinson's  last  joke ;  then  proceeding, 
when  the  business  of  the  day  was  opened,  to  lay  the  foundation 
for  a  new  nation. 

"Before  the  igth  of  April,  1775,"  said  Jefferson,  "  I  had 
never  heard  a  whisper  of  a  disposition  to  separate  from  the 
mother-country."  Washington  said :  "  When  I  first  took  com 
mand  of  the  army  (July  3,  1775),  I  abhorred  the  idea  of  inde 
pendence  ;  but  I  am  now  fully  convinced  that  nothing  else 
will  save  us."  It  is  only  by  dwelling  on  such  words  as  these 
that  we  can  measure  that  vast  educational  process  which 
brought  the  American  people  to  the  Declaration  of  Indepen 
dence  in  1776. 

The  Continental  Congress,  in  the  earlier  months  of  that 
year,  had  for  many  days  been  steadily  drifting  on  towards  the 
distinct  assertion  of  separate  sovereignty,  and  had  declared  it 


THE  GREAT  DECLARATION.  267 

irreconcilable  with  reason  and  a  good  conscience  for  the  colo 
nists  to  take  the  oaths  required  for  the  support  of  the  govern 
ment  under  the  crown  of  Great  Britain.  But  it  was  not  till 
the  yth  of  June  that  Richard  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  rose 
and  read  these  resolutions : 

"  That  these  United  Colonies  are,  and  of  right  ought  to  be,  free  and  inde 
pendent  States ;  that  they  are  absolved  from  all  allegiance  to  the  British 
Crown,  and  that  all  political  connection  between  them  and  the  State  of  Great 
Britain  is,  and  ought  to  be,  totally  dissolved. 

"  That  it  is  expedient  forthwith  to  take  the  most  effectual  measures  for 
forming  foreign  alliances. 

"  That  a  plan  of  confederation  be  prepared  and  transmitted  to  the  respec 
tive  colonies  for  their  consideration  and  approbation." 

These  resolutions  were  presented  under  direct  instructions 
from  the  Virginia  Assembly,  the  delegates  from  that  colony 
selecting  Mr.  Lee  as  their  spokesman.  They  were  at  once  sec 
onded,  probably  after  previous  understanding,  by  John  Adams, 
of  Massachusetts — Virginia  and  Massachusetts  being  then  the 
leading  colonies.  It  was  a  bold  act,  for  it  was  still  doubtful 
whether  anything  better  than  a  degrading  death  would  await 
these  leaders  if  unsuccessful.  Gage  had  written,  only  the 
year  before,  of  the  prisoners  left  in  his  hands  at  Bunker  Hill, 
that  "their  lives  were  destined  to  the  cord."  Indeed  the  story 
runs  that  a  similar  threat  was  almost  as  frankly  made  to  the 
son  of  Mr.  Lee,  then  a  school-boy  in  England.  He  was  one 
day  standing  near  one  of  his  teachers,  when  some  visitor  asked 
the  question :  "  What  boy  is  that  ?"  "  He  is  the  son  of  Rich 
ard  Henry  Lee,  of  America,"  the  teacher  replied.  On  this 
the  visitor  put  his  hand  on  the  boy's  head  and  said,  "  We  shall 
yet  see  your  father's  head  upon  Tower  Hill " — to  which  the 
boy  answered,  "  You  may  have  it  when  you  can  get  it."  This 
was  the  way  in  which  the  danger  was  regarded  in  England ; 
and  we  know  that  Congress  directed  the  secretary  to  omit 
from  the  journals  the  names  of  the  mover  and  seconder  of 
these  resolutions.  The  record  only  says,  "  Certain  resolutions 


268  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES, 

respecting  independence  being  moved  and  seconded,  Resolved, 
That  the  consideration  of  them  be  deferred  until  to-morrow 
morning;  and  that  the  members  be  enjoined  to  attend  punctu 
ally  at  ten  o'clock,  in  order  to  take  the  same  into  their  con 
sideration." 

On  the  next  day  the  discussion  came  up  promptly,  and  was 
continued  through  Saturday,  June  8th,  and  on  Monday,  June 
loth.  The  resolutions  were  opposed,  even  with  bitterness,  by 
Robert  Livingston,  of  New  York,  by  Dickinson  and  Wilson, 
of  Pennsylvania,  and  by  Rutledge,  of  South  Carolina.  The 
latter  is  reported  to  have  said  privately,  "  that  it  required  the 
impudence  of  a  New-Englander  for  them  in  their  disjointed 
state  to  propose  a  treaty  to  a  nation  now  at  peace ;  that  no 
reason  could  be  assigned  for  pressing  into  this  measure  but 
the  reason  of  every  madman,  a  show  of  spirit."  On  the  other 
hand,  the  impudence,  if  such  it  was,  of  John  Adams,  went  so 
far  as  to  defend  the  resolutions,  as  stating  "  objects  of  the  most 
stupendous  magnitude,  in  which  the  lives  and  liberties  of  mill 
ions  yet  unborn  were  intimately  interested ;"  as  belonging  to 
"  a  revolution  the  most  complete,  unexpected,  and  remarkable 
of  any  in  the  history  of  nations."  On  Monday  the  resolutions 
were  postponed,  by  a  vote  of  seven  colonies  against  five,  until 
that  day  three  weeks ;  and  it  was  afterwards  voted  (June  nth), 
"  in  the  mean  while,  that  no  time  be  lost,  in  case  Congress  agree 
thereto,  that  a  committee  be  appointed  to  prepare  a  declaration 
to  that  effect."  Of  this  committee  Mr.  Lee  would  doubtless 
have  been  the  chairman,  had  he  not  been  already  on  his  way 
to  Virginia,  to  attend  the  sick-bed  of  his  wife.  His  associate, 
Thomas  Jefferson,  was  named  in  his  place,  together  with  John 
Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  Benjamin  Franklin,  of  Pennsylvania, 
Roger  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  and  Robert  R.  Livingston,  of 
New  York. 

This  provided  for  the  Declaration;  and  on  the  appointed 
day,  July  i,  1776,  Congress  proceeded  to  the  discussion  of  the 


THE   GREAT  DECLARATION.  269 

momentous  resolutions.  Little  remains  to  us  of  the  debate,  and 
the  best  glimpse  of  the  opening  situation  is  afforded  to  the 
modern  reader  through  a  letter  written  by  Mr.  Adams  to  Mercy 
Warren,  the  historian — a  letter  dated  "  Quincy,  1807,"  but  not 
printed  until  within  a  few  years,  when  it  was  inserted  by  Mr. 
Frothingham  in  the  appendix  to  his  invaluable  "  Rise  of  the 
Republic  of  the  United  States."  The  important  passage  is  as 
follows : 

"  I  remember  very  well  what  I  did  say ;  but  I  will  previously  state  a  fact  as 
it  lies  in  my  memory,  which  may  be  somewhat  explanatory  of  it.  In  the  pre 
vious  multiplied  debates  which  we  had  upon  the  subject  of  independence,  the 
delegates  from  New  Jersey  had  voted  against  us ;  their  constituents  were  in 
formed  of  it  and  recalled  them,  and  sent  us  a  new  set  on  purpose  to  vote  for 
independence.  Among  these  were  Chief-justice  Stockton  and  Dr.  Witherspoon. 
In  a  morning  when  Congress  met,  we  expected  the  question  would  be  put  and 
carried  without  any  further  debate ;  because  we  knew  we  had  a  majority,  and 
thought  that  argument  had  been  exhausted  on  both  sides,  as  indeed  it  was,  for 
nothing  new  was  ever  afterwards  advanced  on  either  side.  But  the  Jersey  dele 
gates,  appearing  for  the  first  time,  desired  that  the  question  might  be  discussed. 
We  observed  to  them  that  the  question  was  so  public,  and  had  been  so  long 
discussed  in  pamphlets,  newspapers,  and  at  every  fireside,  that  they  could  not 
be  uninformed,  and  must  have  made  up  their  minds.  They  said  it  was  true 
they  had  not  been  inattentive  to  what  had  been  passing  abroad,  but  they  had 
not  heard  the  arguments  in  Congress,  and  did  not  incline  to  give  their  opinions 
until  -they  should  hear  the  sentiments  of  members  there.  Judge  Stockton  was 
most  particularly  importunate,  till  the  members  began  to  say,  '  Let  the  gentle 
men  be  gratified,'  and  the  eyes  of  the  assembly  were  turned  upon  me,  and  sev 
eral  of  them  said,  '  Come,  Mr.  Adams ;  you  have  had  the  subject  longer  at 
heart  than  any  of  us,  and  you  must  recapitulate  the  arguments.'  I  was  some 
what  confused  at  this  personal  application  to  me,  and  would  have  been  very 
glad  to  be  excused ;  but  as  no  other  person  rose,  after  some  time  I  said,  '  This 
is  the  first  time  in  my  life  when  I  seriously  wished  for  the  genius  and  eloquence 
of  the  celebrated  orators  of  Athens  and  Rome  :  called  in  this  unexpected  and 
unprepared  manner  to  exhibit  all  the  arguments  in  favor  of  a  measure  the  most 
important,  in  my  judgment,  that  had  ever  been  discussed  in  civil  or  political  so 
ciety,  I  had  no  art  or  oratory  to  exhibit,  and  could  produce  nothing  but  simple 
reason  and  plain  common-sense.  I  felt  myself  oppressed  by  the  weight  of  the 
subject,  and  I  believed  if  Demosthenes  or  Cicero  had  ever  been  called  to  de 
liberate  on  so  great  a  question,  neither  would  have  relied  on  his  own  talents 
without  a  supplication  to  Minerva,  and  a  sacrifice  to  Mercury  or  the  God  of 
Eloquence.'  All  this,  to  be  sure,  was  but  a  flourish,  and  not,  as  I  conceive,  a 
very  bright  exordium ;  but  I  felt  awkwardly.  .  .  . 


2/0 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


"  I  wish  some  one  had  remembered  the  speech,  for  it  is  almost  the  only  one 
I  ever  made  that  I  wish  was  literally  preserved." 

"  John  Adams,"  said  Jefferson,  long  afterwards,  to  Mr.  Web 
ster  and  Mr.  Ticknor,  "  was  our  Colossus  on  the  floor.  He  was 
not  graceful,  nor  elegant,  nor  remarkably  fluent,  but  he  came 
out  occasionally  with  a  power  of  thought  and  expression  that 

moved  us  from  our  seats.'' 
It  seems  a  pity  that  no 
adequate  specimens  re 
main  to  us  of  this  straight 
forward  eloquence  ;  and 
yet  it  is  cause  for  con 
gratulation,  on  the  whole, 
that  the  only  speech  fully 
written  out  after  that  de 
bate  was  the  leading  ar 
gument  for  the  negative. 
Long  years  have  made 
us  familiar  with  the  con 
siderations  that  led  to 
national  independence ; 
the  thing  of  interest  is 
to  know  what  was  said 

against  it;  and  this  is  just  what  we  happen  to  know  through 
the   record  of  a  single   speech. 

After  any  great  measure  has  been  carried  through,  men 
speedily  forget  the  objections  and  the  objectors,  and  in  a  hun 
dred  years  can  hardly  believe  that  any  serious  opposition  was 
ever  made.  How  utterly  has  the  name  of  John  Dickinson 
passed  into  oblivion!  and  yet,  up  to  the  year  1776,  he  had 
doubtless  contributed  more  than  any  one  man,  except  Thomas 
Paine,  to  the  political  emancipation,  so  far  as  the  press  could 
effect  it,  of  the  American  people.  The  "  Farmer's  Letters  "  had 
been  reprinted  in  London  with  a  preface  by  Dr.  Franklin ; 


JOHN    DICKINSON. 


THE  GREAT  DECLARATION.  2/1 

they  had  been  translated  into  French,  and  they  had  been  more 
widely  read  in  America  than  any  patriotic  pamphlet,  excepting 
only  the  "  Common  Sense  "  of  Paine.  Now  their  author  is  for 
gotten —  except  through  the  college  he  founded  —  because  he 
shrunk  at  the  last  moment  before  the  storm  he  had  aroused. 
Who  can  deny  the  attribute  of  moral  courage  to  the  man  who 
stood  up  in  the  Continental  Congress  to  argue  against  inde 
pendence  o?  But  John  Adams  reports  that  Dickinson's  mother 
used  to  say  to  him:  "Johnny,  you  will  be  hanged;  your  estate 
will  be  forfeited  or  confiscated ;  you  will  leave  your  excellent 
wife  a  widow,"  and  so  on ;  and  Adams  admits  that  if  his  wife 
and  mother  had  held  such  language,  it  would  have  made  him 
miserable  at  least.  And  it  was  under  this  restraining  influence, 
so  unlike  the  fearless  counsels  of  Abby  Adams,  that  Dickin 
son  rose  on  that  first  of  July,  and  spoke  thus: 

"  I  value  the  love  of  my  country  as  I  ought,  but  I  value  my  country  more ; 
and  I  desire  this  illustrious  assembly  to  witness  the  integrity,  if  not  the  policy, 
of  my  conduct.  The  first  campaign  will  be  decisive  of  the  controversy.  The 
Declaration  will  not  strengthen  us  by  one  man,  or  by  the  least  supply,  while  it 
may  expose  our  soldiers  to  additional  cruelties  and  outrages.  Without  some 
prelusory  trials  of  our  strength,  we  ought  not  to  commit  our  country  upon  an 
alternative,  where  to  recede  would  be  infamy,  and  to  persist  might  be  destruc 
tion. 

"No  instance  is  recollected  of  a  people  without  a  battle  fought,  or  an  ally 
gained,  abrogating  forever  their  connection  with  a  warlike  commercial  empire. 
It  might  unite  the  different  parties  in  Great  Britain  against  us,  and  it  might 
create  disunion  among  ourselves. 

"  With  other  powers  it  would  rather  injure  than  avail  us.  Foreign  aid  will 
not  be  obtained  but  by  our  actions  in  the  field,  which  are  the  only  evidences  of 
our  union  and  vigor  that  will  be  respected.  In  the  war  between  the  United 
Provinces  and  Spain,  France  and  England  assisted  the  provinces  before  they 
declared  themselves  independent ;  if  it  is  the  interest  of  any  European  kingdom 
to  aid  us,  we  shall  be  aided  without  such  a  declaration  ;  if  it  is  not,  we  shall 
not  be  aided  with  it.  Before  such  an  irrevocable  step  shall  be  taken,  we  ought 
to  know  the  disposition  of  the  great  powers,  and  how  far  they  will  permit  one 
or  more  of  them  to  interfere.  The  erection  of  an  independent  empire  on  this 
continent  is  a  phenomenon  in  the  world  ;  its  effects  will  be  immense,  and  may 
vibrate  round  the  globe.  How  they  may  affect,  or  be  supposed  to  affect,  old 
•establishments,  is  not  ascertained.  It  is  singularly  disrespectful  to  France  to 


272  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

make  the  Declaration  before  her  sense  is  known,  as  we  have  sent  an  agent  ex 
pressly  to  inquire  whether  such  a  Declaration  would  be  acceptable  to  her,  and 
we  have  reason  to  believe  he  is  now  arrived  at  the  Court  of  Versailles.  The 
measure  ought  to  be  delayed  till  the  common  interests  shall  in  the  best  man 
ner  be  consulted  by  common  consent.  Besides,  the  door  to  accommodation  with 
Great  Britain  ought  not  to  be  shut,  until  we  know  what  terms  can  be  obtained 
from  some  competent  power.  Thus  to  break  with  her  before  we  have  com 
pacted  with  another,  is  to  make  experiments  on  the  lives  and  liberties  of  my 
countrymen,  which  I  would  sooner  die  than  agree  to  make.  At  best,  it  is  to 
throw  us  into  the  hands  of  some  other  power  and  to  lie  at  mercy,  for  we  shall 
have  passed  the  river  that  is  never  to  be  repassed.  We  ought  to  retain  the 
Declaration  and  remain  masters  of  our  own  fame  and  fate." 

These  were  the  opinions  of  the  "  Pennsylvania  Farmer,"  as 
condensed  by  Bancroft  from  Mr.  Dickinson's  own  report,  no 
words  being  employed  but  those  of  the  orator.  In  the  field 
some  of  the  bravest  men  were  filled  with  similar  anxieties. 
The  letter,  already  quoted,  from  the  new  adjutant -general, 
Joseph  Reed,  describing  the  military  situation,  was  not  laid 
before  the  Congress,  indeed,  but  one  from  General  Washington, 
giving  essentially  the  same  facts,  was  read  at  the  opening  of 
that  day's  session.  In  spite  of  this  mournful  beginning,  and 
notwithstanding  the  arguments  of  Mr.  Dickinson,  the  purpose 
of  the  majority  in  the  legislative  body  was  clear  and  strong; 
and  the  pressure  from  their  constituencies  was  yet  stronger. 
Nearly  every  colony  had  already  taken  separate  action  towards 
independence,  and  on  that  first  day  of  July  the  Continental 
Congress  adopted,  in  committee,  the  first  resolution  offered  by 
the  Virginia  delegates.  There  were  nine  colonies  in  the  affirm 
ative,  Pennsylvania  and  South  Carolina  voting  in  the  negative* 
the  latter  unanimously,  Delaware  being  divided,  and  New  York 
not  voting,  the  delegates  from  that  colony  favoring  the  meas 
ure,  but  having  as  yet  no  instructions. 

When  the  resolutions  came  up  for  final  action  in  conven 
tion  the  next  day,  the  state  of  things  had  changed.  Dickinson 
and  Morris,  of  Pennsylvania,  had  absented  themselves  and  left 
an  affirmative  majority  in  the  delegation;  Caesar  Rodney  had 


GREAT  DECLARATION.  2?$ 

returned  from  an  absence  and  brought  Delaware  into  line ; 
and  South  Carolina,  though  still  disproving  the  resolutions,, 
joined  in  the  vote  for  the  sake  of  unanimity,  as  had  been  half 
promised  by  Edward  Rutledge  the  day  before.  Thus  twelve 
colonies  united  in  the  momentous  action ;  and  New  York,, 
though  not  voting,  yet  endorsed  it  through  a  State  convention 
within  a  week.  The  best  outburst  of  contemporary  feeling 
over  the  great  event  is  to  be  found  in  a  letter  by  John  Adams 
to  his  wife,  dated  July  3,  1776.  He  writes  as  follows: 

"  Yesterday  the  greatest  question  was  decided  which  ever  was  debated  in- 
America,  and  a  greater,  perhaps,  never  was  nor  will  be  decided  among  men.  .  .  . 
When  I  look  back  to  1761,  ...  and  recollect  the  series  of  political  events,  the 
chain  of  causes  and  effects,  I  am  surprised  at  the  suddenness  as  well  as  great 
ness  of  this  revolution.  Britain  has  been  filled  with  folly,  and  America  with 
wisdom.  ...  It  is  the  will  of  Heaven  that  the  two  countries  should  be  sundered 
forever.  It  may  be  the  will  of  Heaven  that  America  shall  suffer  calamities  still 
more  wasting,  and  distresses  yet  more  dreadful.  .  .  .  But  I  submit  all  my  hopes 
and  fears  to  an  overruling  Providence,  in  which,  unfashionable  as  the  faith  may 
be,  I  firmly  believe.  .  .  . 

"The  second  day  of  July,  1776,  will  be  the  most  memorable  epocha  in  the 
history  of  America.  I  am  apt  to  believe  that  it  will  be  celebrated  by  succeeding 
generations  as  the  great  anniversary  festival.  It  ought  to  be  commemorated  as 
the  day  of  deliverance,  by  solemn  acts  of  devotion  to  God  Almighty,  .  .  .  from 
one  end  of  the  continent  to  the  other,  from  this  time  forward  for  evermore. 

"  You  will  think  me  transported  with  enthusiasm,  but  I  am  not.  I  am  well 
aware  of  the  toil  and  blood  and  treasure  that  it  will  cost  us  to  maintain  this 
declaration,  and  support  and  defend  these  States.  Yet,  through  all  the  gloom, 
I  can  see  the  rays  of  ravishing  light  and  glory  •  I  can  see  that  the  end  is  worth 
all  the  means.  And  that  posterity  will  "triumph  in  that  day's  transaction,  even 
though  we  should  rue  it,  which  I  trust  in  God  we  shall  not/' 

John  Adams  was  mistaken  in  one  prediction.  It  is  the 
Fourth  of  July,  not  the  Second,  which  has  been  accepted  by 
Americans  as  "  the  most  memorable  epocha."  This  is  one  of 
the  many  illustrations  of  the  fact  that  words  as  well  as  deeds 
are  needful,  since  a  great  act  may  seem  incomplete  until  it  has 
been  put  into  a  fitting  form  of  words.  It  was  the  vote  of  July 
2d  that  changed  the  thirteen  colonies  into  independent  States ; 
the  Declaration  of  Independence  only  promulgated  the  fact  and 

18 


274 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


assigned  its  reasons.  Had  this  great  proclamation  turned  out 
to  be  a  confused  or  ill-written  document,  it  would  never  have 
eclipsed  in  fame  the  original  Resolution,  which  certainly  had 
no  such  weak  side.  But  this  danger  was  well  averted,  for  the 
Declaration  was  to  be  drawn  up  by  Jefferson,  unsurpassed  in 
his  time  for  power  of  expression.  He  accordingly  framed  it; 
Franklin  and  Adams  suggested  a  few  verbal  amendments; 


HOUSE   IN   WHICH   JEFFERSON    WROTE   THE    DECLARATION,  CORNER  OF   MARKET 
AND   SEVENTH   STREETS,   PHILADELPHIA. 


Sherman  and  Livingston  had  none  to  offer;  and  the  document 
stood  ready  to  be  reported  to  the  Congress. 

Some  of  those  who  visit  Philadelphia  may  feel  an  interest 
in  knowing  that  the  "title-deed  of  our  liberties,"  as  Webster 
called  it,  was  written  in  "  a  new  brick  house  out  in  the  fields " 
— a  house  still  standing,  at  the  south-west  corner  of  Market 
and  Seventh  streets,  less  than  a  quarter  of  a  mile  from  In 
dependence  Square.  Jefferson  had  there  rented  a  parlor  and 


THE   GREAT  DECLARATION.  275 

bedroom,  ready  furnished,  on  the  second  floor,  for  thirty- five 
shillings  a  week ;  and  he  wrote  the  Declaration  in  this  parlor, 
upon  a  little  writing-desk,  three  inches  high,  which  still  exists. 
In  that  modest  room  we  may  fancy  Franklin  and  Adams  listen 
ing  critically,  Sherman  and  Livingston  approvingly,  to  what  was 
for  them  simply  the  report  of  a  committee.  Jefferson  had  writ 
ten  it,  we  are  told,  without  the  aid  of  a  single  book;  he  was 
merely  putting  into  more  systematic  form  a  series  of  points  long 
familiar ;  and  Parton  may  be  right  in  the  opinion  that  the  writer 
was  not  conscious  of  any  very  strenuous  exercise  of  his  faculties, 
or  of  any  very  eminent  service  done. 

Nothing  is  so  difficult  as  to  transport  ourselves  to  the  actual 
mood  of  mind  in  which  great  historic  acts  were  performed,  or 
in  which  their  actors  habitually  dwelt.  Thus,  on  the  seventh 
day  of  that  July,  John  Adams  wrote  to  his  wife  a  descrip 
tion  of  the  condition  of  our  army,  so  thrilling  and  harrowing 
that  it  was,  as  he  says,  enough  to  fill  one  with  horror.  We 
fancy  him  spending  that  day  in  sackcloth  and  ashes ;  but  there 
follows  on  the  same  page  another  letter,  written  to  the  same 
wife  on  the  same  day— a  long  letter  devoted  solely  to  a  dis 
course  on  the  varieties  of  English  style,  in  which  he  urges 
upon  her  a  careful  reading  of  Rollin's  "  Belles-lettres  "  and  the 
Epistles  of  Pliny  the  Younger.  Yet  any  one  who  has  ever 
taken  part  in  difficult  or  dangerous  actions  can  understand  the 
immense  relief  derived  from  that  half  hour's  relapse  into  "  the 
still  air  of  delightful  studies."  And  it  is  probable  that  Jefferson 
and  his  companions,  even  while  discussing  the  title-deed  of  our 
liberties,  may  have  let  their  talk  stray  over  a  hundred  collateral 
themes  as  remote  from  the  immediate  task  as  were  Pliny  and 
Rollin. 

During  three  days — the  second,  third,  and  fourth  of  July — 
the  Declaration  was  debated  in  the  Congress.  The  most  vivid 
historic  glimpse  of  that  debate  is  in  Franklin's  consolatory  an 
ecdote,  told  to  Jefferson,  touching  John  Thompson,  the  hatter. 


276 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


The  amendments  adopted  by  Congress  have  always  been  ac 
counted  as  improvements,  because  tending  in  the  direction  of 
conciseness  and  simplicity,  though  the  loss  of  that  stern  condem 
nation  of  the  slave-trade — "  a  piratical  warfare  against  human 


VIEW   OF   INDEPENDENCE   HALL,  THROUGH   THE   SQUARE. 

nature  itself  " — has  always  been  regretted.  The  amended  docu 
ment  was  finally  adopted,  like  the  Virginia  resolution,  by  the 
vote  of  twelve  colonies,  New  York  still  abstaining.  If  Thomas 
McKean's  reminiscences  at  eighty  can  be  trusted,  it  cost  anoth 
er  effort  to  secure  this  strong  vote,  and  Caesar  Rodney  had  again 


THE  GREAT  DECLARATION.  277 

to  be  sent  for  to  secure  the  Delaware  delegation.  McKean 
says,  in  a  letter  written  in  1814  to  John  Adams,  "I  sent  an 
express  for  Caesar  Rodney  to  Dover,  in  the  county  of  Kent,  in 
Delaware,  at  my  private  expense,  whom  I  met  at  the  State- 
house  door  on  the  4th  of  July,  in  his  boots;  he  resided  eighty 
miles  from  the  city,  and  just  arrived  as  Congress  met."  Jeffer 
son  has,  however,  thrown  much  doubt  over  these  octogenarian 
recollections  by  McKean,  and  thinks  that  he  confounded  the 
different  votes  together.  There  is  little  doubt  that  this  hurried 
night-ride  by  Rodney  was  in  preparation  for  the  Second  of  July, 
not  the  Fourth,  and  that  the  vote  on  the  Fourth  went  quietly 
through. 

But  the  Declaration,  being  adopted,  was  next  to  be  signed ; 
and  here  again  we  come  upon  an  equally  great  contradiction  in 
testimony.  This  same  Thomas  McKean  wrote  in  1814  to  ex- 
President  Adams,  speaking  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
'"  No  man  signed  it  on  that  day" — namely,  July  4,  1776.  Jeffer 
son,  on  the  other  hand,  writing  some  years  later,  thought  that 
Mr.  McKean's  memory  had  deceived  him,  Jefferson  himself  as 
serting,  from  his  early  notes,  that  "  the  Declaration  was  reported 
by  the  Committee,  agreed  to  by  the  House,  and  signed  by  every 
member  present  except  Mr.  Dickinson."  But  Jefferson,  who 
was  also  an  octogenarian,  seems  to  have  forgotten  the  subse 
quent  signing  of  the  Declaration  on  parchment,  until  it  was  re 
called  to  his  memory,  as  he  states,  a  few  years  later.  If  there 
was  a  previous  signing  of  a  written  document,  the  manuscript 
itself  has  long  since  disappeared,  and  the  accepted  historic 
opinion  is  that  both  these  venerable  witnesses  were  mistaken ; 
that  the  original  Declaration  was  signed  only  by  the  president 
and  secretary,  John  Hancock  and  Charles  Thomson,  and  that 
the  general  signing  of  the  parchment  copy  took  place  on  Au 
gust  2d.  It  is  probable,  at  least,  that  fifty-four  of  the  fifty- 
six  names  were  appended  on  that  day,  and  that  it  was  after 
wards  signed  by  Thornton,  of  New  Hampshire,  who  was  not 


278 


HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 


then   a  member,  and  by   McKean,  who   was   then   temporarily 
absent. 

Jefferson  used  to  relate,  "  with  much  merriment,"  says  Par- 
ton,  that  the  final  signing  of  the  Declaration  was  hastened  by  a 
very  trivial  circumstance.  Near  the  hall  was  a  large  stable, 
whence  the  flies  issued  in  legions.  Gentlemen  were  in  those 
days  peculiarly  sensitive  to  such  discomforts  by  reason  of  silk 


TABLE    AND    CHAIRS    USED    AT    THE    SIGNING    OF    THE   DECLARATION. 


stockings ;  and  when  this  annoyance,  superadded  to  the  summer 
heat  of  Philadelphia,  had  become  intolerable,  they  hastened  to 
bring  the  business  to  a  conclusion.  This  may  equally  well  refer, 
however,  to  the  original  vote;  flies  are  flies,  whether  in  July  or 
August. 

American  tradition  has  clung  to  the  phrases  assigned  to  the 


THE   GREAT  DECLARATION.  279 

different  participants  in  this  scene :  John  Hancock's  commen 
tary  on  his  own  bold  handwriting,  "  There,  John  Bull  may  read 
my  name  without  spectacles ;"  Franklin's,  "  We  must  hang  to 
gether,  or  else,  most  assuredly,  we  shall  all  hang  separately ;" 
and  the  heavy  Harrison's  remark  to  the  slender  Elbridge  Gerry, 
that  in  that  event  Gerry  would  be  kicking  in  the  air  long  after 
his  own  fate  would  be  settled.  These  things  may  or  may  not 
have  been  said,  but  it  gives  a  more  human  interest  to  the  event 
when  we  know  'that  they  were  even  rumored.  What  we  long  to 
know  is,  that  the  great  acts  of  history  were  done  by  men  like 
ourselves,  and  not  by  dignified  machines. 

This  is  the  story  of  the  signing.  Of  the  members  who 
took  part  in  that  silent  drama  of  1776,  some  came  to  greatness 
in  consequence,  becoming  presidents,  vice-presidents,  govern 
ors,  chief -justices,  or  judges;  others  came, .  in  equally  direct 
consequence,  to  poverty,  flight,  or  imprisonment.  "  Hunted 
like  a  fox  by  the  enemy ;"  "  a  prisoner  twenty-four  hours  with 
out  food,"  "not  daring  to  remain  two  successive  nights  beneath 
one  shelter" — these  are  the  records  we  may  find  in  the  annals 
of  the  Revolution  in  regard  to  many  a  man  who  stood  by 
John  Hancock  on  that  summer  day  to  sign  his  name.  It  is  a 
pleasure  to  think  that  not  one  of  them  ever  disgraced,  publicly 
or  conspicuously,  the  name  he  had  written.  Of  the  rejoicings 
which,  everywhere  throughout  the  colonies,  followed  the  sign 
ing,  the  tale  has  been  often  told.  It  has  been  told  so  often, 
if  the  truth  must  be  confessed,  that  it  is  not  now  easy  to  dis 
tinguish  the  romance  from  the  simple  fact.  The  local  anti 
quarians  of  Philadelphia  bid  us  dismiss  forever  from  the  record 
the  picturesque  old  bell-ringer  and  his  eager  boy,  waiting 
breathlessly  to  announce  to  the  assembled  thousands  the  final 
vote  of  Congress  on  the  Declaration.  The  tale  is  declared  to 
be  a  pure  fiction,  of  which  there  exists  not  even  a  local  tradi 
tion.  The  sessions  of  Congress  were  then  secret,  and  there 
was  no  expectant  crowd  outside.  It  was  not  till  the  fifth  of 


280 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


July  that  Congress  sent 
out  circulars  announc 
ing  the  Declaration ;  not 
till  the  sixth  that  it  ap 
peared  in  a  Philadelphia 
newspaper;  and  not  till 
the  eighth  that  it  was 
read  by  John  Nixon  in 
the  yard  of  Indepen 
dence  Hall.  It  was  read 
from  an  observatory 
there  erected  by  the 
American  Philosophical 
Society,  seven  years 
before,  to  observe  the 
transit  of  Venus.  The 


TEARING   DOWN   THE   KING'S  ARMS    FROM  ABOVE   THE   DOOR   IN   THE   CHAMBER   OF 
THE   SUPREME   COURT    ROOM    IN    INDEPENDENCE   HALL,  JULY   8,   1776. 


THE   GREAT  DECLARATION.  28 1 

king's  arms  over  the  door  of  the  Supreme  Court  room  in  Inde 
pendence  Hall  were  torn  down  by  a  committee  of  the  Volun 
teer  force  called  "  associators  ;"  these  trophies  were  burned  in 
the  evening,  in  the  presence  of  a  great  crowd  of  citizens,  and 
no  doubt  amid  the  joyful  pealing  of  the  old  "Independence" 
bell.  There  is  also  a  tradition  that  on  the  afternoon  of  that 
day,  or  possibly  "a  day  or  two  earlier,  there  was  a  joyful  private 


GARDEN-HOUSE,  OWNED  BY  DR.  ENOCH  EDWARDS,  WHERE  JEFFERSON  AND  OTHERS 
CELEBRATED   THE   PASSAGE  OF  THE   DECLARATION. 


celebration  of  the  great  event,  by  Jefferson  and  others,  at  the 
garden-house  of  a  country-seat  in  Frankford  (near  Philadelphia), 
then  occupied  by  Dr.  Enoch  Edwards,  a  leading  patriot  of  that 
time. 

It  is  certain  that  a  portion  of  the  signers  of  the  Declara 
tion  met  two  years  after,  for  a  cheery  commemoration  of  their 
great  achievement,  in  the  Philadelphia  City  Tavern.  The  en 
joyment  of  the  occasion  was  enhanced  by  the  recent  deliver 
ance  of  the  city  from  the  presence  of  General  Howe,  and  by 
the  contrast  between  this  festival  and  that  lately  given  by  the 


282  HISTORY  OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

British  officers  to  him,  known  in  history  as  the  "  Meschianza." 
This  chapter  may  well  close  with  a  passage  from  the  manu 
script  diaries  of  William  Ellery,  now  lying  before  me. 

"On  the  glorious  Fourth  of  July  [1778],  I  celebrated  in  the  City  Tavern, 
with  my  brother  delegates  of  Congress  and  a  number  of  other  gentlemen, 
amounting,  in  the  whole,  to  about  eighty,  the  anniversary  of  Independency. 
The  entertainment  was  elegant  and  well  conducted.  There  were  four  tables 
spread ;  two  of  them  extended  the  whole  length  of  the  room,  the  other  two 
crossed  them  at  right  angles.  At  the  end  of  the  room,  opposite  the  upper 
table,  was  erected  an  Orchestra.  At  the  head  of  the  upper  table,  and  at  the 
President's  right  hand,  stood  a  large  baked  pudding,  in  the  centre  of  which 
was  planted  a  staff,  on  which  was  displayed  a  crimson  flag,  in  the  midst  of 
which  was  this  emblematic  device :  An  eye,  denoting  Providence ;  a  label,  on 
which  was  inscribed,  '  An  appeal  to  Heaven ;'  a  man  with  a  drawn  sword  in  his 
hand,  and  in  the  other  the  Declaration  of  Independency,  and  at  his  feet  a  scroll 
inscribed,  'The  declaratory  acts.'  As  soon  as  the  dinner  began,  the  music, 
consisting  of  clarionets,  hautboys,  French  horns,  violins,  and  bass-viols,  opened 
and  continued,  making  proper  pauses,  until  it  was  finished.  Then  the  toasts, 
followed  by  a  discharge  of  field-pieces,  were  drank,  and  so  the  afternoon  ended. 
In  the  evening  there  was  a  cold  collation  and  a  brilliant  exhibition  of  fire 
works.  The  street  was  crowded  with  people  during  the  exhibition.  .  .  . 

"  What  a  strange  vicissitude  in  human  affairs  !  These,  but  a  few  years 
since  colonies  of  Great  Britain,  are  now  free,  sovereign,  and  independent  States, 
and  now  celebrate  the  anniversary  of  their  independence  in  the  very  city  where, 
but  a  day  or  two  before,  General  Howe  exhibited  his  ridiculous  Champ haitre." 


X1L 

THE  BIRTH  OF  A  NATION. 

"  A  /T  Y  lords>"  said  the  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph's,  in  the  British 
IV JL  House  of  Lords,  "  I  look  upon  North  America  as  the 
only  great  nursery  of  freedom  left  upon  the  face  of  the  earth." 
It  is  the  growth  of  freedom  in  this  nursery  which  really  inter 
ests  us  most  in  the  Revolutionary  period;  all  the  details  of 
battles  are  quite  secondary.  Indeed,  in  any  general  view  of  the 
history  of  a  nation,  the  steps  by  which  it  gets  into  a  war  and 
finally  gets  out  again  are  of  more  importance  than  all  that  lies 
between.  No  doubt  every  skirmish  in  a  prolonged  contest  has 
its  bearing  on  national  character,  but  it  were  to  consider  too 
curiously  to  dwell  on  this,  and  most  of  the  continuous  incident 
of  a  war  belongs  simply  to  military  history.  If  this  is  always 
the  case,  it  is  peculiarly  true  of  the  war  of  American  Indepen 
dence,  which  exhibited,  as  was  said  by  the  ardent  young  French 
man,  Lafayette,  "  the  grandest  of  causes  won  by  contests  of  sen 
tinels  and  outposts." 

The  Declaration  of  Independence  was  publicly  read  through 
out  the  colonies,  and  was  communicated  by  Washington  in  a 
general  order,  July  9,  1776,  with  the  following  announcement: 
"  The  general  hopes  this  important  event  will  serve  as  an  in 
centive  to  every  officer  and  soldier  to  act  with  fidelity  and  cour 
age,  as  knowing  that  now  the  peace  and  safety  of  his  country 
depend  (under  God)  solely  on  the  success  of  our  arms ;  and  that 
he  is  now  in  the  service  of  a  State  possessed  of  sufficient  power 
to  reward  his  merit  and  advance  him  to  the  highest  honors  of 


284  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

a  free  country."  Thus  early  did  this  far-seeing  Virginian  give 
his  allegiance  to  the  new  government  as  a  nation, — terming  it 
"  a  State,"  "  a  free  country ;"  not  an  agglomeration  of  States, 
only,  or  a  temporary  league  of  free  countries.  And  he  needed 
for  his  encouragement  all  the  strength  he  could  gain  from  this 
new-born  loyalty. 

It  was  a  gloomy  and  arduous  year,  the  year  1776.  The  first 
duty  now  assigned  to  Washington  was  that  of  sustaining  him 
self  on  Long  Island  and  guarding  New  York.  Long  Island 
was  the  scene  of  terrible  disaster;  the  forces  under  Putnam 
were  hemmed  in  and  cut  to  pieces  (August  27th),  making 
Greenwood  Cemetery  a  scene  of  death  before  it  was  a  place  of 
burial.  In  this  fatal  battle  8000  Americans,  still  raw  and  under 
a  raw  commander  (Putnam),  were  opposed  to  20,000  trained 
Hessian  soldiers,  supported  by  a  powerful  fleet.  Washington 
decided  to  retreat  from  Long  Island.  With  extraordinary 
promptness  and  energy  he  collected  in  a  few  hours,  from  a 
range  of  fourteen  miles,  a  sufficient  supply  of  boats — this  being 
done  in  such  secrecy  that  even  his  aides  did  not  know  it.  For 
forty-eight  hours  he  did  not  sleep,  being  nearly  the  whole  time 
in  the  saddle.  He  sent  9000  men,  with  all  their  baggage  and 
field  artillery,  across  a  rapid  river  nearly  a  mile  wide,  within 
hearing  of  the  enemy's  camp :  "  the  best  conducted  retreat  I 
ever  read  of,"  wrote  General  Greene.  Then  began  desertions,, 
by  companies  and  almost  by  regiments.  They  continued  dur 
ing  all  his  memorable  retreat  through  the  Jerseys,  when  his- 
troops  were  barefooted  and  disheartened,  and  yet  he  contested 
every  inch  of  ground.  At  the  beginning  of  his  march  he  heard 
of  the  loss  of  Fort  Washington  (November  i6th)  with  2600 
men,  their  ordnance,  ammunition,  and  stores.  The  day  before 
he  crossed  the  Delaware  the  British  took  possession  of  New 
port,  Rhode  Island,  signalling  their  arrival  by  burning  the  house 
of  William  Ellery,  who  had  signed  the  great  Declaration. 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  285 

Yet  amid  all  these  accumulated  disasters  Washington  wrote 
to  Congress  that  he  could  see  "  without  despondency  even  for 
a  moment "  what  America  called  her  "  gloomy  hours."  He 
could  breathe  more  freely  at  last  when,  on  December  8th,  he 
crossed  the  Delaware  at  Trenton  with  what  the  discouraged 
Reed  had  called  "  the  wretched  fragments  of  a  broken  army," 
now  diminished  to  3000  men.  As  his  last  boat  crossed,  the 
advanced  guard  of  Howe's  army  reached  the  river,  and  looked 
eagerly  for  means  of  transportation.  Washington  had  seized 
everything  that  could  float  upon  the  water  within  seventy 
miles. 

On  December  20,  1776,  Washington  told  John  Hancock,  then 
President  of  the  Congress,  "  Ten  days  more  will  put  an  end  to 
the  existence  of  our  army."  Yet  at  Christmas  he  surprised  the 
Hessians  at  Trenton,  recrossing  the  river  and  returning  on  his 
•course  with  what  was  perhaps  the  most  brilliant  single  stroke  of 
war  that  he  ever  achieved.  A  few  days  later  (January  3, 1777)  he 
defeated  Cornwallis  at  Princeton  with  almost  equal  ability ;  and 
all  this  he  did  with  but  5000  men,  one-half  militia,  the  rest  little 
more.  During  that  year  there  had  been  in  service  47,000  "  Con 
tinentals  "  and  27,000  militia.  Where  were  they  all?  These 
large  figures  had  only  been  obtained  through  that  system  of 
short  enlistments  against  which  Washington  had  in  vain  pro 
tested — enlistments  for  three  months,  or  even  for  one  month. 
It  is  useless  for  this  generation  to  exclaim  against  what  may 
:seem  slowness  or  imbecility  in  the  government  of  that  day. 
Why,  we  ask,  did  they  not  foresee  what  the  war  would  be  ? 
why  did  they  not  insist  on  longer  enlistments  ?  We  have  seen 
in  our  own  time  the  uselessness  of  these  questionings.  Under 
popular  institutions  it  is  hard  to  convince  a  nation  that  a  long 
war  is  before  it;  it  is  apt  to  be  easily  persuaded  that  peace  will 
return  in  about  sixty  days ;  its  strength  is  seen,  if  at  all,  in  its 
reserved  power  and  its  final  resources.  The  dawn  of  indepen 
dence  seemed  overcast  indeed  when  the  campaign  of  1776 


286  HISTORY  OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

closed,  and  Washington,  with  only  three  or  four  thousand  men, 
went  sadly  into  winter-quarters  at  Morristown. 

In  April,  1777,  John  Adams  wrote  proudly  to  his  wife, 
"  Two  complete  years  we  have  maintained  open  war  with  Great 
Britain  and  her  allies,  and,  after  all  our  difficulties  and  misfort 
unes,  are  much  abler  to  cope  with  them  now  than  we  were  at 
the  beginning."  The  year  that  followed  was  in  many  respects 
the  turning-point  of  the  Revolution.  The  British  had  formed 
a  plan  which,  had  it  been  carried  out,  might  have  resulted  in  a 
complete  triumph  for  them.  It  was  a  project  to  take  thorough 
possession  of  the  whole  line  of  the  Hudson — Burgoyne  coming 
down  from  the  North,  Howe  going  up  from  the  South — thus 
absolutely  cutting  the  colonies  in  two,  separating  New  England 
from  the  rest,  and  conquering  each  by  itself.  Happily  this  was 
abandoned  for  a  measure  that  had  no  valuable  results,  the  pos 
session  of  Philadelphia.  It  is  true  that  in  the  effort  to  save 
that  city,  Washington  sustained  defeat  at  Brandywine  (Septem 
ber  n,  1777),  and  only  came  near  victory,  without  achieving  it, 
at  Germantown  (October  4th).  But  the  occupation  of  Philadel 
phia  divided  the  British  army — now  nearly  fifty  thousand  sol 
diers — while  the  American  army,  though  it  had  shrunk  to  about 
half  that  number,  remained  more  concentrated.  Moreover,  the 
luxurious  winter  in  Philadelphia  did  the  invading  troops  little 
good ;  while  the  terrible  winter  at  Valley  Forge  was  in  one 
sense  the  saving  of  the  Americans.  There  they  came  under 
the  influence  of  trained  foreign  officers  — Pulaski  and  Steuben, 
as  well  as  the  young  Lafayette.  Baron  Steuben  especially  took 
the  hungry  soldiers  and  taught  them  what  drill  meant.  Hereto 
fore  there  had  been  a  different  drill  for  almost  every  regiment 
— a  whole  regiment  numbering  sometimes  but  thirty  men — and 
many  of  these  retained  the  practice  learned  in  Indian  warfare,* 
of  marching  in  single  file. 

Meanwhile  at  the  North  there   occurred   successes  for  the 
American  army,  which  grew  directly  out  of  the   abandonment 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A    NATION.  287 

of  the  British  plan.  Stark  with  New  England  troops  defeated 
a  detachment  of  Burgoyne's  army  near  Bennington  ;  and  Gates 
took  the  whole  of  that  army — five  thousand  men — prisoners  at 
Saratoga,  October  17,  1777.  It  seemed  for  the  moment  that 
this  determined  the  fate'  of  the  war.  That  surrender  is  the  only 
American  battle  included  by  Sir  Edward  Creasy  in  his  "  Fifteen 
Decisive  Battles  of  the  World,"  and  yet  for  six  years  its  deci 
siveness  did  not  prove  final  and  the  war  went  on.  Those  who 
remember  the  sort  of  subdued  and  sullen  hopefulness  which 
prevailed,  year  in  and  year  out,  in  the  Northern  States,  during 
the  late  war  for  the  Union,  can  probably  conceive  something  of 
the  mood  in  which  the  American  people  saw  months  and  years 
go  by  during  the  Revolution  without  any  very  marked  progress, 
and  yet  with  an  indestructible  feeling  that  somehow  the  end 
must  come.  But  the  surrender  of  Burgoyne  at  least  turned  the 
scale  in  favor  of  the  Americans,  so  far  as  the  judgment  of  Eu 
rope  was  concerned.  When  the  French  minister,  Vergennes, 
declared  that  "  All  efforts,  however  great,  would  be  powerless  to 
reduce  a  people  so  thoroughly  determined  to  refuse  submission," 
the  alliance  was  a  foregone  conclusion.  Dr.  Franklin,  with  in 
exhaustible  and  wily  good-nature,  was  always  pressing  upon  the 
French  ministry  this  same  view,  and  the  influence  of  Lafayette 
seconded  it.  Nations  like  to  form  alliances  on  the  side  that 
seems  to  be  winning.  Yet  not  even  the  French  government 
wished  to  have  the  new  nation  too  powerful ;  and  Mr.  John  Jay 
has  conclusively  shown  that  Vergennes  would  have  left  the 
United  States  a  very  hampered  and  restricted  nationality  had 
not  the  vigor  of  Jay,  well  seconded  by  Adams,  added,  at  a  later 
period,  an  element  of  positive  self-assertion  beyond  the  good 
nature  of  Franklin.  Meanwhile,  the  first  treaty  with  France — 
'which  was  also  the  first  treaty  of  the  United  States  with  any 
foreign  government — was  signed  February  6,  1778,  two  months 
after  the  news  of  Burgoyne's  surrender  had  reached  Paris. 

However  high  we  rate  the  value  of  the  French  help,  we  must 


288  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

remember  that  the  alliance  united  England  against  the  two  na 
tions.  There  were  many  who  were  by  this  time  convinced  that 
the  work  of  conquest  was  hopeless.  "  The  time  may  come,"  said 
the  King  to  Lord  North,  in  1778,  "when  it  will  be  wise  to  aban 
don  all  North  America  but  Canada,  Nova  Scotia,  and  the  Flor- 
idas ;  but  then  the  generality  of  the  nation  must  first  see  it  in 
that  light."  If  there  is  anything  that  is  impressed  upon  the 
very  school-books  in  connection  with  that  period  it  is  the  obsti 
nacy  of  King  George  III.,  and  yet  he  had  learned  thus  much. 
On  the  other  hand,  Lord  Chatham,  who  had  once  said,  "  Amer 
ica  has  resisted ;  I  rejoice^  my  lords,"  was  now  driven  by  the 
French  alliance  to  take  sides  against  America.  He  saw  in  the 
proposed  independence  only  the  degradation  of  the  power  of 
.England  before  the  French  throne,  and  was  carried  from  a  sick 
bed  to  speak  against  it  in  Parliament  (April  7,  1778).  "My 
lords,"  he  said,  "  I  rejoice  that  the  grave  has  not  closed  upon 
me,  that  I  am  still  alive  to  uplift  my  voice  against  the  dismem 
berment  of  this  ancient  and  most  noble  monarchy."  As  the 
Duke  of  Richmond  essayed  to  answer,  Chatham  was  seized  with 
apoplexy,  and  was  borne  from  the  House  to  die.  The  young 
American  government  had  gained  a  powerful  alliance,  but  it 
had  lost  its  best  English  friend.  Richmond,  Burke,  and  Fox 
supported  its  cause,  but  Chatham  had  roused  the  traditional 
pride  of  England  against  France,  and  Lord  North  was  his  suc 
cessor.  Then  followed  a  period  of  which  Washington  wrote  to 
George  Mason  (March  27,  1779)  that  he  was  for  the  first  time 
despondent,  and  had  beheld  no  day  in  which  he  thought  the 
liberties  of  America  so  endangered.  The  war  must  still  go  on, 
and  the  French  army  and  navy  must  cross  the  Atlantic  for  its 
prosecution.  They  were  cordially  welcomed  by  everybody  ex 
cept  the  German  settlers  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania,  who 
could  not  forget,  as  Mrs.  Quincy's  journal  tells  us,  the  excesses 
committed  by  the  French  troops  in  Germany. 

The  direct  service  done  by  the  French  alliance  was  of  less 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION. 


value  than  the  moral  support  it  brought.  It  occupied  Newport, 
Rhode  Island,  in  July,  1780,  with  nearly  six  thousand  men  in 
army  and  navy.  The  unpublished  memorials  of  that  time  and 
place  contain  many  delightful  recollections  of  the  charming  man 
ners  of  the  French  officers :  of  the  Rochambeaux,  father  and 
son ;  of  the  Due  de  Deux-Ponts,  afterwards  King  of  Bavaria ; 
of  the  Prince  de  Broglie,  guillotined  in  the  Revolution ;  of  the 
Swedish  Count  Fersen,  "  the  Adonis  of  the  camp,"  who  after 
wards  acted  as  coachman  for  the  French  king  and  queen  in 
their  escape  from  Paris ;  of  the  Vicomte  de  Noailles  and  of 
Admiral  de  Ternay,  the  latter  buried  in  Trinity  Church  yard 
in  Newport.  There  are  old  houses  in  that  city  which  still  re 
tain  upon  their  window-panes  the  gallant  inscriptions  of  those 
picturesque  days,  and  there  are  old  letters  and  manuscripts  that 
portray  their  glories.  One  that  lies  before  me  describes  the 
young  noblemen  driving  into  the  country  upon  parties  of  pleas 
ure,  preceded  by  their  running  footmen — a  survival  of  feudalism 
—tall  youths  in  kid  slippers  and  with  leaping  poles ;  another 
describes  the  reception  of  Washington  by  the  whole  French 
garrison,  in  March,  1781.  It  was  a  brilliant  scene.  The  four 
French  regiments  were  known  as  Bourbonnais,  Soissonnais, 
Deux-  Fonts,  and  Saintonge ;  they  contained  each  a  thousand 
men ;  and  the  cavalry  troop,  under  De  Lauzun,  was  almost  as 
large.  Some  of  these  wore  white  uniforms,  with  yellow  or  vio 
let  or  crimson  lapels,  and  with  black  gaiters ;  others  had  a  uni 
form  of  black  and  gold,  with  gaiters  of  snowy  white.  The  offi 
cers  displayed  stars  and  badges ;  even  the  officers'  servants  were 
gay  in  gold  and  silver  lace.  Over  them  all  and  over  the  whole 
town  floated  the  white  flag  of  the  Bourbons  with  the  fleurs-de- 
lis.  They  were  drawn  up  in  open  ranks  along  the  avenue  lead 
ing  to  the  long  wharf,  which  was  just  then  losing  its  picturesque 
old  name,  Queen's  Hithe.  This  gay  army,  whose  fresh  uniforms 
and  appointments  contrasted  strangely  with  the  worn  and  dilap 
idated  aspect  of  the  Continental  troops,  received  Washington 

19 


290 


HISTORY  OF  'THE   UNITED  STATES. 


THE    FRENCH    OFFICERS   AT   NEWPORT. 


with  the  honors  due  to  a  marshal  of  France.  In  the  evening 
a  ball  was  given  to  the  American  generals ;  Washington  opened 
the  dance  with  the  beautiful  Miss  Champlin :  he  chose  for 
the  figure  the  country -dance  known  as  "A  Successful  Cam 
paign,"  and,  as  he  danced,  the  French  officers  took  the  instru 
ments  from  the  musicians,  and  themselves  played  the  air  and 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  291 

accompaniment.  Thus  with  characteristic  graces  began  the 
French  occupation  of  Newport,  and  it  continued  to  be  for  them 
rather  a  holiday  campaign,  until  the  siege  of  Yorktown,  Virginia, 
proved  the  qualities  of  their  engineers  and  their  soldiers.  After 
ten  days  of  siege,  the  British  army,  overwhelmed  and  surround 
ed,  had  to  surrender  at  last  (October  19,  1781);  and  in  the  great 
painting  which  represents  the  scene,  at  the  Versailles  palace, 
General  de  Rochambeau  is  made  the  conspicuous  figure,  while 
Washington  is  quite  secondary. 

Meanwhile  the  successes  of  Paul  Jones  in  sea-fighting  gained 
still  more  the  respect  of  Europe,  and  his  victorious  fight  of  three 
hours  in  the  Bonkomme  Richard  against  the  Serapis  (1779) — the 
two  ships  being  lashed  side  by  side — was  the  earliest  naval  victo 
ry  gained  under  the  present  American  flag,  which  this  bold  sea- 
captain  was  the  first  to  unfurl.  Then  the  skilful  campaigns  of 
General  Nathaniel  Greene  (1780)  rescued  the  Carolinas  from  in 
vasion;  and  the  treason  of  Benedict  Arnold,  with  his  plan  for  sur 
rendering  to  the  British  the  "American  Gibraltar" — West  Point 
— created  a  public  excitement  only  deepened  by  the  melancholy 
death  of  Major  Andre,  who  was  hanged  as  a  spy,  Sept.  23,  1780. 
For  nearly  two  years  after  the  surrender  of  Cornwallis  the  British 
troops  held  the  cities  of  New  York,  Charleston,  and  Savannah  ; 
and  though  they  were  powerless  beyond  those  cities,  yet  it  seem 
ed  to  their  garrisons,  no  doubt,  that  the  war  was  not  yet  ended. 
Mrs.  Josiah  Quincy,  visiting  New  York  as  a  child,  just  before 
its  evacuation  by  the  British  under  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  in  1783, 
says  that  she  accompanied  her  mother,  Mrs.  Morton,  to  call  on 
the  wife  of  Chief-justice  Smith,  an  eminent  loyalist.  Their  host 
ess  brought  in  a  little  girl,  and  said,  "  This  child  has  been  born 
since  the  Rebellion."  "  Since  the  Revolution  ?"  replied  Mrs.  Mor 
ton.  Mrs.  Smith  smiled,  and  said  good-naturedly, "  Well,  well,  Mrs. 
Morton,  this  is  only  a  truce,  not  a  peace ;  and  we  shall  be  back 
again  in  full  possession  in  two  years."  "  This  prophecy  happily 
did  not  prove  true,"  adds  Mrs.  Quincy,  with  exultant  patriotism. 


292  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Independence  was  essentially  secured  by  the  preliminary  ar 
ticles  signed  in  Paris  on  Jan.  20,  1783,  although  the  final  treaty 
was  not  signed  till  Sept.  3d.  It  was  on  April  18,  1783,  that 
Washington  issued  his  order  for  the  cessation  of  hostilities,  thus 
completing,  as  he  said,  the  eighth  year  of  the  war.  The  army 
was  disbanded  Nov.  3d.  The  whole  number  of  "  Continentals," 


GENERAL  SIR  GUY  CARLETON. 

or  regular  troops,  employed  during  the  contest  was  231,791.  Of 
these  Massachusetts  had  furnished  67,907,  Connecticut  31,939, 
Virginia  26,678,  Pennsylvania  25,678,  and  the  other  States 
smaller  numbers,  down  to  2679  from  Georgia.  The  expendi 
tures  of  the  war,  as  officially  estimated  in  1790,  were  nearly  a 
hundred  million  dollars  in  specie  ($92,485,693.15),  and  the  debts, 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  293 

foreign  expenditures,  etc.,  swelled  this  to  more  than  one  hundred 
and  thirty-five  millions  ($135,693,703).  At  the  close,  the  army, 
which  had  been  again  and  again  on  the  verge  of  mutiny  from 
neglect  and  privation,  received  pay  for  three  months  in  six 
months'  notes,  which  commanded  in  the  market  the  price  of  two 
shillings  for  twenty  shillings.  The  soldiers  reached  their  homes, 
as  Washington  wrote  to  Congress,  "without  a  settlement  of  their 
accounts,  and  without  a  farthing  of  money  in  their  pockets." 

Independence  ^  being  thus  achieved,  what  was  to  be  done 
with  it  ?  Those  who  represented  the  nation  in  Congress,  while 
generally  agreed  in  patriotic  feeling,  were  not  agreed  even  on 
the  fundamental  principles  of  government.  The  Swiss  Zubly, 
who  represented  Georgia,  and  who  claimed  to  have  been  famil 
iar  with  republican  government  ever  since  he  was  six  years  old, 
declared  that  it  was  "  little  better  than  a  government  of  devils." 
John  Adams  heartily  favored  what  he  called  republican  govern 
ment,  but  we  know,  from  a  letter  of  his  to  Samuel  Adams  (Oc 
tober  1 8,  1790),  that  he  meant  by  it  something  very  remote  from 
our  present  meaning.  Like  many  other  men  of  modest  origin, 
he  had  a  strong  love  for  social  distinctions ;  he  noted  with  sat 
isfaction  that  there  was  already  the  semblance  of  an  aristocracy 
in  Boston  ;  and  he,  moreover,  held  that  the  republican  forms  of 
Poland  and  Venice  were  worse,  and  the  Dutch  and  Swiss  repub 
lics  but  little  better,  than  the  old  regime  in  France,  whose  abuses 
led  to  the  Revolution.  The  republic  of  Milton,  he  thought, 
would  imply  "  miseries,"  and  the  simple  monarchical  form  would 
be  better.  He  meant  by  republic,  he  said,  simply  a  government 
in  which  "  the  people  have  collectively  of  by  representation  an 
essential  share  in  the  sovereignty  " — such  a  share,  for  instance, 
as  they  have  in  England.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  not  strange 
that  he  should  have  regarded  independence  itself  as  but  a  tenv 
porary  measure,  a  sort  of  protest,  and  should  have  looked  for 
ward  without  dismay  to  an  ultimate  reunion  with  England,  un 
der  certain  guarantees  to  be  secured  by  treaty. 


294  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

It  is  very  fortunate  that  the  institutions  of  America  were 
not  to  depend  on  the  speculations  of  any  one  man,  even  the 
wisest.  Many  persons  think  of  the  organization  of  the  United 
States  as  being  the  work  of  a  few  leaders.  Had  this  been  the 
truth,  the  Continental  government  would  have  been  organized 
first,  and  the  State  governments  would  have  been  built  after 
wards  on  its  model.  As  a  matter-of-fact,  it  was  just  the  other 
way.  While  the  great  leaders  were  debating  in  Congress  or 
negotiating  in  Europe,  the  question  of  government  was  settled 
by  the  reorganization  of  successive  colonies  into  common 
wealths,  the  w7ork  being  done  largely  by  men  now  forgotten. 
These  men  took  the  English  tradition  of  local  self-government, 
adapted  it  to  the  new  situation,  and  adjusted  it  to  a  community 
in  which  kings  and  noblemen  had  already  begun  to  fade  into 
insignificance. 

Even  before  independence  was  declared,  some  of  the  colo 
nies — Massachusetts,  New  Hampshire,  South  Carolina,  Virginia, 
and  New  Jersey — had  begun  to  frame  State  governments  on 
the  basis  of  the  old  charter  governments,  but  so  hastily  that 
their  work  needed  in  some  cases  to  be  revised.  After  the 
declaration,  New  York  and  Maryland  followed  soon,  and  then 
the  rest.  We  find  Jefferson  writing  to  Franklin  (August  13, 
1777)  that  in  Virginia  "the  people  seem  to  have  laid  aside  the 
monarchical  and  taken  up  the  republican  government  with  as 
much  ease  as  would  have  attended  their  throwing  off  an  old 
and  putting  on  a  new  suit  of  clothes."  All  these  common 
wealths  agreed,  almost  without  consultation,  on  certain  princi 
ples.  All  recognized  the  sovereignty  of  the  people,  or  at  least 
the  masculine  half  of  the  people ;  all  wished  to  separate  Church 
and  State ;  all  distinguished,  as  did  the  unwritten  constitution 
of  England,  between  the  executive,  the  judicial,  and  the  legis 
lative  departments ;  all  limited  the  executive  department  very 
carefully,  as  experience  had  taught  them  to  do.  Nowhere,  ex 
cept  in  Rhode  Island  rnd  Pennsylvania,  was  there  any  recogni- 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  295 

tion  of  the  hereditary  righttfto  vote,  this  being  in  Rhode  Island 
included  in  the  royal  charter  under  which  that  State  governed 
itself,  omitting  only  the  part  of  royalty,  till  1842.  In  short,  all 
the  scattered  colonies  shifted  what  had  seemed  the  very  basis 
of  their  structure,  and  yet  found  themselves,  after  all,  in  good 
condition.  We  have  grown  accustomed  in  these  days  to  the 
readiness  with  which  English-speaking  men  can  settle  down 
anywhere  on  the  planet  and  presently  organize  free  institutions : 
so  that  we  hardly  recognize  what  a  wonder  it  seemed  that  thir 
teen  colonies,  even  while  engaged  in  a  great  war,  should  one  by 
one  quietly  crystallize  into  shape. 

The  great  difficulty  was  to  unite  these  little  commonwealths 
into  a  nation.  It  took  one  unsuccessful  experiment  to  teach 
the  way  of  success,  and  it  is  astonishing  that  it  did  not  take 
a  dozen.  It  was  a  strange  period.  The  war  had  unsettled 
men's  minds,  as  is  done  by  all  great  wars.  It  had  annihilated 
all  loyalty  to  the  king,  but  it  had  done  much  more  than  this. 
It  had  made  the  rich  poor,  and  the  poor  rich ;  had  filled  the 
nation  with  almost  irredeemable  paper- money;  had  created  a 
large  class  whose  only  hope  was  to  evade  payment  of  their 
debts.  "  Oh,  Mr.  Adams,"  said  John  Adams's  horse-jockey  cli 
ent,  "  what  great  things  have  you  and  your  colleagues  done  for 
us !  We  can  never  be  grateful  enough  to  you.  There  are  no 
courts  of  justice  now  in  this  province,  and  I  hope  there  never 
will  be  another." 

The  first  experiment  at  national  union  was  the  Confedera 
tion.  It  was  based  essentially  on  a  theory  of  Jefferson's.  This 
theory  was  to  make  "  the  States  one  as  to  everything  connected 
with  foreign  nations,  and  several  as  to  everything  purely  domes 
tic."  For  purposes  of  foreign  commerce  a  Confederation  must 
exist.  To  this  all  finally  agreed,  though  with  much  reluctance. 
Indeed  the  original  apostles  of  this  theory  did  not  much  believe 
in  any  such  commerce.  Jefferson  wrote  from  Paris  (in  1785)  that 
if  he  had  his  way  "  the  States  should  practise  neither  commerce 


296  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

nor  navigation,"  but  should  "  stand  with  respect  to  Europe 
cisely  on  the  footing  of  China."  But  he  admitted  that  he  could 
not  have  his  way,  and  wrote  to  Monroe  (December  n,  1785) 
from  Paris:  "On  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  we  are  viewed  as 
objects  of  commerce  only."  Granting  thus  much,  then,  to  be 
inevitable,  how  was  little  Rhode  Island  or  Delaware  to  resist 
the  aggressions  of  any  European  bully,  or  of  those  Algerine  or 
Tripolitan  pirates  who  then  bullied  even  the  bullies  themselves? 
For  this  purpose,  at  least,  there  must  be  some  joint  action. 
How  could  the  United  States  treat  with  any  foreign  govern 
ment  when,  as  Washington  said  (in  1785),  they  were  "one  na 
tion  to-day  and  thirteen  to-morrow?"  They  must  therefore 
unite  sufficiently  to  make  a  treaty  and  enforce  it,  but  no  further. 
In  other  words,  they  undertook  to  build  a  house  which  should 
have  an  outside  but  no  inside. 

The  Confederation  was  originally  put  in  shape  through  a 
committee  appointed  by  Congress,  June  n,  1776,  "to  prepare 
and  digest  the  form  of  a  confederation  to  be  entered  into  be 
tween  these  colonies."  But  the  "  articles  "  thus  prepared  were 
not  accepted  by  Congress  till  November  15,  1777,  and  they  had 
been  much  modified  before  they  received  the  assent  of  the  last 
of  the  States,  on  March  i,  1781.  During  all  this  time  the  af 
fairs  of  the  war  were  carried  on  loosely  enough  by  Congress — 
still  a  single  House — which  had  come  to  be  familiarly  known 
among  the  people  as  "  King  Cong."  But  this  king  had  abso 
lutely  no  power  but  in  the  impulsive  support  of  the  people.  It 
was  a  thankless  office  to  sit  in  Congress  ;  the  best  men  were 
more  and  more  reluctant  to  serve  there.  To  reach  it,  wherever 
it  sat — Philadelphia,  Baltimore,  Lancaster,  York,  Princeton,  or 
Annapolis — was  to  most  of  the  members  far  more  of  a  journey 
than  to  reach  San  Francisco  or  London  from  Philadelphia  or 
Annapolis  to-day.  Inasmuch  as  all  votes  were  taken  by  States 
— and  every  State  had  an  equal  vote,  so  long  as  there  was  one 
man  to  represent  it — there  was  a  strong  temptation  for  delegates 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  297 

to  absent  themselves ;  and  a  single  member  from  Delaware  or 
Rhode  Island  could,  if  present,  balance  the  whole  representa 
tion  from  New  York  or  Virginia.  "  It  is  enough  to  sicken  one," 
wrote  General  Knox  to  Washington,  in  March,  1783,  "to  ob 
serve  how  light  a  matter  many  States  make  of  their  not  being 
represented  in  Congress — a  good  proof  of  the  badness  of  the 
present  Constitution."  Even  on  the  great  occasion  when  the 
resignation  of  Washington  was  to  be  received,  there  were  pres 
ent  only  twenty  members,  representing  but  seven  of  the  colonies. 
"  It  is  difficult,"  wrote  M.  Otto  to  the  French  government,  "  to 
assemble  seven  States,  which  form  the  number  required  to  trans 
act  the  least  important  business ;"  and  he  wrote  again,  a  few 
months  after,  that  the  secret  of  the  predominant  influence  of 
Massachusetts  in  the  Congress  was  that  she  usually  kept  four 
or  five  able  delegates  there,  while  other  States  rarely  had  two. 
As  we  read  the  records  we  can  only  wonder  that  the  organiza 
tion  did  its  work  so  well ;  and  it  is  not  at  all  strange  that,  as 
the  same  General  Knox  wrote  to  Washington,  the  favorite  toasts 
in  the  army  were,  "  Cement  to  the  Union  "  and  "  A  hoop  to  the 
barrel." 

There  were  those  who  believed  that  nothing  but  the  actual 
necessities  of  another  war  could  really  unite  the  colonies,  and 
some  patriots  frankly  wished  for  that  calamity.  M.  Otto,  writ 
ing  home  in  December,  1785,  to  M.  De  Vergennes,  declared 
that  Mr.  Jay  was  the  most  influential  man  in  Congress,  and  that 
Mr.  Jay  had  lately  expressed  in  his  hearing  a  wish  that  the 
Algerine  pirates,  then  so  formidable,  would  burn  some  of  the 
maritime  towns  of  the  United  States,  in  order  to  reunite  the 
nation  and  call  back  the  old  feeling.  "  The  majority  of  Con 
gress  perceive  very  clearly,"  he  wrote,  "  that  war  would  serve  as 
a  bond  to  the  Confederation,  but  they  cannot  conceal  the  lack 
of  means  which  they  possess  to  carry  it  on  with  advantage." 

This  desperate  remedy  being  out  of  the  question,  the  "  hoop 
to  the  barrel "  must  be  put  on  by  some  more  peaceful  method. 


298  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Yet  each  way  had  its  own  perplexities.  There  were  jealousies 
of  long  standing  between  North  and  South,  between  the  colo 
nies  which  were  ready  to  abolish  slavery  and  those  which  clung 
to  it.  Then  the  course  of  the  Confederation  had  only  increased 
the  mutual  distrust  between  the  small  and  the  large  States. 
There  were  objections  to  a  permanent  president ;  some  would 
have  preferred,  as  a  very  few  would  still  prefer,  to  have  a  sys 
tem  like  that  now  prevailing  in  the  Swiss  Confederation,  and  to 
place  at  the  head  merely  the  chairman  of  a  committee.  Again, 
there  existed  a  variety  of  opinions  as  to  a  Legislature  of  one 
or  two  Houses.  It  is  said  that  when  Jefferson  returned  from 
France  he  was  breakfasting  with  Washington,  and  asked  him 
why  he  agreed  to  a  Senate. 

"  Why,"  said  Washington,  "  did  you  just  now  pour  that  cof 
fee  into  your  saucer  before  drinking  it  ?"  "  To  cool  it,"  said 
Jefferson;  "my  throat  is  not  made  of  brass."  "Even  so,"  said 
Washington,  "  we  pour  our  legislation  into  the  Senatorial  saucer 
to  cool  it." 

Franklin,  like  Jefferson,  approved  only  of  the  single  cham 
ber  of  deputies,  and  it  has  been  thought  that  to  his  great  influ 
ence  in  France,  leading  to  the  adoption  of  that  method,  were 
due  some  of  the  excesses  of  the  French  Revolution.  The 
States  of  Pennsylvania  and  Georgia  had,  during  the  Confeder 
ation,  but  one  legislative  body ;  the  Confederation  itself  had 
but  one,  and  the  great  State  of  New  York  voted  in  the  con 
vention  of  1787  against  having  more  than  one.  Some  of  the 
most  enlightened  European  reformers — Mazzini,  Louis  Blanc, 
Stuart  Mill,  even  Goldwin  Smith  —  have  always  believed  the 
second  House  to  be  a  source  of  weakness  in  American  insti 
tutions,  while  the  general  feeling  of  Americans  is  overwhelm 
ingly  in  its  favor.  Yet  its  mere  existence  is  a  type  of  that 
combination  which  is  at  the  foundation  of  the  national  govern 
ment.  If  Patrick  Henry  was  right,  if  he  had  wholly  ceased  to 
be  a  Virginian  in  becoming  an  American,  then  there  should  be 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  299 

no  separate  representation  of  the  States.  If  Jefferson  was  right 
—who  considered  the  Union  only  a  temporary  device  to  carry 
the  colonies  through  the  war  for  Independence — then  the  States 
only  should  be  represented,  and  they  should  weigh  equally, 
whether  small  or  large.  But  Elbridge  Gerry  included  both 


ELBRIDGE   GERRY. 

statements  when  he  said :  "  We  are  neither  the  same  nation  nor 
different  nations.  We  ought  not,  therefore,  to  pursue  the  one 
or  the  other  of  these  ideas  too  closely."  This  statement  is  re 
garded  by  Von  Hoist,  the  acutest  foreign  critic  of  American 
institutions  since  De  Tocqueville,  as  containing  the  whole  se 
cret  of  American  history. 


300  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

We  are  apt  to  suppose  that  the  sentiment  of  union  among 
the  colonies,  once  formed,  went  steadily  on  increasing.  Not  at 
all ;  it  went,  like  all  other  things,  by  action  and  reaction.  It 
was  before  a  shot  was  fired  that  Patrick  Henry  had  thrilled  the 
people's  ears  with  his  proud  assertion  of  nationality.  "  The  dis 
tinctions  between  Virginians,  Pennsylvanians,  New-Yorkers,  and 
New-Englanders  are  no  more.  I  am  not  a  Virginian ;  I  am  an 
American."  But  as  the  war  went  on,  the  "  people  "  of  the  United 
States  came  again  to  be  loosely  described  as  the  "  inhabitants  " 
of  the  States.  The  separate  commonwealths  had  the  organiza 
tion,  the  power,  all  but  the  army;  and  one  of  them,  North  Caro 
lina,  went  so  far  as  to  plan  a  fleet.  The  Confederation  was 
only,  as  it  described  itself,  "  a  firm  league  of  friendship ;"  the 
Continental  government  was  once  actually  characterized  in 
Massachusetts  as  a  foreign  power ;  it  was  the  creation  of  war's 
necessities,  while  the  States  controlled  the  daily  life.  Washing 
ton  had  to  complain  that  the  States  were  too  much  engaged  in 
their  "  local  concerns,"  and  he  had  to  plead  for  the  "  great  busi 
ness  of  a  nation."  Fisher  Ames  wrote,  "  Instead  of  feeling  as 
a  nation,  a  State  is  our  country."  So  far  as  the  influence  of 
foreign  nations  went,  it  tended  only  to  disintegrate,  not  to  unite. 
Even  the  one  friendly  government  of  Europe,  the  French,  had 
no  interest  in  promoting  union ;  the  cabinet  at  Versailles  wrote 
to  its  minister  in  America  (August  30,  1787)  that  it  would  not 
regret  to  see  the  Confederation  broken  up,  and  that  it  had  rec 
ognized  "  no  other  object  than  to  deprive  Great  Britain  of  that 
vast  continent." 

In  short,  the  Confederation  waned  day  by  day;  it  had  no 
power,  for  power  had  been  carefully  withheld  from  it ;  it  had 
only  influence,  and,  as  Washington  once  said,  "  Influence  is  not 
government."  Fisher  Ames  declared  that  "  the  corporation  of 
a  college  or  a  missionary  society  were  greater  potentates  than 
Congress.  .  .  .  The  government  of  a  great  nation  had  barely 
revenue  enough  to  buy  stationery  for  its  clerks,  or  to  pay  the 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A    NATION. 


301 


salary  of  the  door-keepers."  It  existed  only  to  carry  on  the 
war  as  it  best  could,  and  when  the  war  ended,  the  prestige  of 
the  Confederation  was  gone.  There  was  left  a  people  with 
out  a  government,  and  this  people  was  demoralized  amid  suc- 


FISHER   AMES. 


cess,  discontented  in  spite  of  its  triumph.  Washington  thus 
despairingly  summed  up  the  situation  :  "  From  the  high  ground 
we  stood  upon,  from  the  plain  path  which  invited  our  footsteps, 
to  be  so  fallen,  so  lost,  is  really  mortifying;  but  virtue,  I  fear, 


302  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

has  in  some  degree  taken  its  departure  from  our  land,  and  the 
want  of  a  disposition  to  do  justice  is  the  source  of  our  national 
embarrassments." 

The  downfall  of  the  Confederation  was  greatly  aided  by  the 
celebrated  insurrection  of  Daniel  Shays  in  Massachusetts — an 
occasion  when  armed  mobs  broke  up  the  courts  and  interrupted 
all  the  orderly  processes  of  law.  This  body  numbered,  accord 
ing  to  the  estimate  of  General  Knox — who  went  to  Springfield 
to  provide  for  the  defence  of  the  arsenal  against  them — not  less 
than  twelve  or  fifteen  thousand  men,  scattered  through  the  New 
England  States ;  and  he  estimated  the  whole  force  of  their 
friends  and  supporters  at  two-sevenths  of  the  population — not, 
as  Von  Hoist  says,  one-half.  The  grounds  of  this  insurrection 
were,  as  it  seems  to  me,  a  shade  more  plausible,  and  hence  more 
formidable,  than  the  historians  have  recognized.  As  stated  by 
Knox,  these  views  were  based  expressly  on  the  peculiar  state  of 
things  at  the  close  of  a  long  and  exhausting  war,  and  amounted 
simply  to  the  doctrine  that,  being  narrowly  rescued  from  ship 
wreck,  the  whole  half-drowned  company  should  share  alike.  As 
a  result  of  the  war,  they  urged,  almost  everybody  was  bankrupt. 
John  Adams's  horse-jockey  client  was  really  no  worse  off  than 
the  most  sober  and  honest  mechanic.  Of  the  few  who  had  any 
money,  some  were  speculators  and  contractors,  who  had  grown 
rich  out  of  the  government ;  others  were  Tories  in  disguise,  who 
had  saved  their  property  from  a  just  confiscation.  All  this 
property,  having  been  saved  from  the  British  by  the  sacrifices 
of  all,  should  in  justice  be  shared  among  all.  I  Yet  they  would 
not  demand  so  much  as  that :  let  there  be  simply  a  remission  of 
debts  and  a  further  issue  of  paper-money./ 

Audacious  as  this  proposition  now  seems,  it  was  not  wholly 
inconsistent  with  some  things  that  had  gone  before  it.  If 
Washington  himself  thought  it  fitting  to  celebrate  the  surrender 
of  Cornwallis  by  a  general  release  of  prisoners  from  jail,  why 
not  now  carry  this  rejoicing  a  little  further,  and  have  an  equally 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A    NATION. 


303 


SHAYS'S  MOB    IN    POSSESSION   OF   A   COURT-HOUSE. 

general  release  of  those  who  were  on  their  way  to  jail  ?  Thus 
they  reasoned,  or  might  have  reasoned,  and  all  this  helps  us  to 
understand  a  little  better  why  it  wras  that  Jefferson  did  not  share 


304  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

the  general  alarm  at  these  doctrines,  but,  on  the  whole,  rather 
approved  of  the  outbreak.  "  Can  history  produce,"  he  said,  "  an 
instance  of  rebellion  so  honorably  conducted  ?"  "  God  forbid 
we  shall  ever  be  without  such  a  rebellion  !"  "  A  little  rebellion 
now  and  then  is  a  good  thing."  "  An  observation  of  this  truth 
should  render  republican  governors  so  mild  as  not  to  discourage 
them  too  much."  Yet  those  who  were  on  the  spot  saw  in  this 
rebellion  not  only  the  weakness  of  the  general  government,  but 
that  of  the  separate  States  as  well.  "  Not  only  is  State  against 
State,  and  all  against  the  Federal  head,"  wrote  General  Knox  to 
Washington,  "  but  the  States  within  themselves  possess  the 
name  only,  without  having  the  essential  concomitants  of  govern 
ment.  .  .  .  On  the  very  first  impression  of  faction  and  licentious 
ness,  the  fine  theoretic  government  of  Massachusetts  has  given 
way." 

Even  before  this  insurrection,  a  convention,  attended  by  five 
States  only,  had  been  held  at  Annapolis  (September,  1786),  with 
a  view  to  some  improved  national  organization.  It  called  a 
general  convention,  which  met  at  Philadelphia,  having  barely  a 
quorum  of  States,  on  May  25,  1787.  There  the  delegates  sat 
amid  constant  interruptions  and  antagonisms,  the  majority  of 
the  New  York  delegation  leaving  once  under  protest,  South 
Carolina  protesting,  Elbridge  Gerry  predicting  failure,  and  Ben 
jamin  Franklin  despairingly  proposing  to  open  the  sessions 
thenceforward  with  prayer  as  the  last  remaining  hope.  Then 
the  Constitution  was  adopted  at  last  —  only  to  come  into  new 
and  more  heated  discussion  in  every  State.  We  have  in  The 
Federalist  Hamilton's  great  defence  of  it ;  but  Patrick  Henry 
himself  turned  his  eloquence  against  it  in  Virginia,  and  Samuel 
Adams  in  Massachusetts.  These  were  two  very  powerful  oppo 
nents,  who  were  well  entitled  to  a  voice ;  and  in  these  two  im 
portant  States  the  Constitution  was  accepted  by  majorities  so 
small  that  the  change  of  a  dozen  votes  would  have  caused  de 
feat.  In  the  New  York  Convention  the  vote  stood  30  to  27;  in 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION.  305 

Rhode  Island,  34  to  32  ;  this  being  the  last  State  to  ratify,  and 
the  result  being  secured  by  a  change  of  one  vote  under  the  in 
structions  of  a  town-meeting  in  the  little  village  of  Middletown, 
too  small,  even  at  this  day,  to  have  a  post-office.  By  a  chance 
thus  narrow  was  the  United  States  born  into  a  nation.  The 
contest,  as  Washington  wrote  to  Lee,  was  "  not  so  much  for 
glory  as  existence." 

And  as  thus  finally  created  the  nation  was  neither  English 
nor  French,  but  American.  It  was  in  very  essential  features  a 
new  departure.  It  is  common  to  say  that  the  French  Revolu 
tion  brought  with  it  French  political  theories  in  the  United 
States.  Edmund  Burke  wrote  that  the  colonists  were  "  not  only 
devoted  to  liberty,  but  to  liberty  according  to  English  ideas  and 
on  English  principles,"  yet  there  is  a  prevalent  impression  that 
the  influence  of  France  converted  this  English  feeling  into  a 
French  habit  of  mind,  and  that  the  desire  to  legislate  on  the 
abstract  rights  of  man  came  from  that  side  of  the  English 
Channel.  But  Jefferson  had  never  been  in  France,  nor  under 
any  strong  French  influence,  when  he,  as  the  Rev.  Ezra  Stiles 
said,  "  poured  the  soul  of  a  continent  into  the  monumental  Act 
of  Independence ;"  and  Franklin  had  made  but  flying  visits  to 
Paris  when  he  wrote  in  England,  about  1770,  those  striking 
sentences,  under  the  name  of  "  Some  Good  Whig  Principles," 
which  form  the  best  compendium  of  what  is  called  Jeffersonian 
Democracy :  "  The  all  of  one  man  is  as  dear  to  him  as  the  all 
of  another,  and  the  poor  man  has  an  equal  right,  but  more  need, 
to  have  representatives  in  the  legislature  than  the  rich  one." 
WThat  are  sometimes  reproachfully  called  "  transcendental  poli 
tics  " — political  action,  that  is,  based  on  an  abstract  theory — 
arose  spontaneously  in  that  age ;  the  Constitution  was  based  on 
them;  and  in  urging  them  America  probably  influenced  France 
more  than  France  affected  America.  There  is  now  a  reaction 
against  them,  and  perhaps  it  is  as  well  that  these  oscillations  of 
the  pendulum  should  take  place ;  but  I  am  not  one  of  those  who 

20 


306  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

believe  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  will  ever  outgrow 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 

One  of  the  most  momentous  acts  of  the  Continental  Con 
gress  had  been  to  receive  from  the  State  of  Virginia  the  gift  of 
a  vast  unsettled  territory  north-west  of  the  Ohio,  and  to  apply 
to  this  wide  realm  the  guarantee  of  freedom  from  slavery.  This 
safeguard  was  but  the  fulfilment  of  a  condition  suggested  by 
Timothy  Pickering,  when,  in  1783,  General  Rufus  Putnam  and 
nearly  three  hundred  army  officers  had  proposed  to  form  a  new 
State  in  that  very  region  of  the  Ohio.  They  sent  in  a  memorial 
to  Congress  asking  for  a  grant  of  land.  Washington  heartily 
endorsed  the  project,  but  nothing  came  of  it.  North  Carolina 
soon  after  made  a  cession  of  land  to  the  United  States,  and  then 
revoked  it ;  but  the  people  on  the  ceded  territory  declared  them 
selves  for  a  time  to  be  a  separate  State,  under  the  name  of 
Franklin.  Virginia,  through  Thomas  Jefferson,  finally  delivered 
a  deed  on  March  i,  1784,  by  which  she  ceded  to  the  United 
States  all  her  territory  north-west  of  the  Ohio.  The  great  gift 
was  accepted,  and  a  plan  of  government  was  adopted,  into  which 
Jefferson  tried  to  introduce  an  antislavery  ordinance,  but  he  was 
defeated  by  a  single  vote.  Again,  in  1785,  Rufus  King,  of  Mas 
sachusetts,  seconded  by  William  Ellery,  of  Rhode  Island,  pro 
posed  to  revive  Jefferson's  rejected  clause,  but  again  it  failed, 
being  smothered  by  a  committee.  It  was  not  till  July  13,  1787, 
that  the  statute  passed  by  which  slavery  was  forever  prohibited 
in  the  territory  of  the  North-west,  this  being  moved  by  Nathan 
Dane  as  an  amendment  to  an  ordinance  already  adopted — which 
he  himself  had  framed — and  being  passed  by  a  vote  of  every 
State  present  in  the  Congress,  eight  in  all.  Under  this  statute 
the  Ohio  Company — organized  in  Boston  the  year  before  as  the 
final  outcome  of  Rufus  Putnam's  proposed  colony  of  officers — 
bought  from  the  government  five  or  six  millions  of  acres,  and 
entered  on  the  first  great  movement  of  emigration  west  of  the 
Ohio.  The  report  creating  the  colony  provided  for  public- 


THE  BIRTH  OF  A   NATION^ 


307 


schools,  for  religious  institutions,  and  for  a  university.  The 
land  was  to  be  paid  for  in  United  States  certificates  of  debt,  and 
its  price  in  specie  was  between  eight  and  nine  cents  an  acre. 
The  settlers  were  almost  wholly  men  who  had  served  in  the 
army,  and  were  used  to  organization  and  discipline.  The  In 
dian  title  to  the  lands  of  the  proposed  settlement  had  been  re- 


THE   INAUGURATION   OF   WASHINGTON. 
[From  the  steel  engraving  by  F.  O'C.  Barley  in  Irving's  "Washington,"  by  permission  of  G.  P.  Putnam's  Sons.] 

leased  by  treaty.  It  was  hailed  by  all  as  a  great  step  in  the 
national  existence,  although  it  was  really  a  far  greater  step  than 
any  one  yet  dreamed.  "  No  colony  in  America,"  wrote  Wash 
ington,  "  was  ever  settled  under  such  favorable  auspices  as  that 
which  has  just  commenced  at  the  Muskingum." 

It  had  been  provided  that  the  new  constitution  should  go 


308  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

into  effect  when  nine  States  had  ratified  it.  That  period  having 
arrived,  Congress  fixed  the  first  Wednesday  in  January,  1789, 
for  the  choice  of  Presidential  electors,  and  the  first  Wednesday 
in  March  for  the  date  when  the  new  government  should  go  into 
power.  On  March  4,  1789,  the  Continental  Congress  ceased  to 
exist,  but  it  was  several  weeks  before  either  House  of  the  new 
Congress  was  organized.  On  April  6th  the  organization  of  the 
two  Houses  was  complete,  the  electoral  votes  were  counted ;  and 
on  April  2ist  John  Adams  took  his  seat  as  Vice-president  in  the 
chair  of  the  Senate.  On  the  3Oth  of  April  the  streets  around 
the  old  "  Federal  Hall "  in  New  York  City  were  so  densely 
crowded  that  it  seemed,  in  the  vivid  phrase  of  an  eye-witness, 
"  as  if  one  might  literally  walk  on  the  heads  of  the  people."  On 
the  balcony  of  the  hall  was  a  table  covered  with  crimson  velvet, 
upon  which  lay  a  Bible  on  a  crimson  cushion.  Out  upon  the 
balcony  came,  with  his  accustomed  dignity,  the  man  whose  gen 
eralship,  \vhose  patience,  whose  self-denial,  had  achieved  and 
then  preserved  the  liberties  of  the  nation ;  the  man  who,  greater 
than  Caesar,  had  held  a  kingly  crown  within  reach,  and  had  re 
fused  it.  Washington  stood  a  moment  amid  the  shouts  of  the 
people,  then  bowed,  and  took  the  oath,  administered  by  Chan 
cellor  Livingston.  At  this  moment  a  flag  was  raised  upon  the 
cupola  of  the  hall ;  a  discharge  of  artillery  followed,  and  the 
assembled  people  again  filled  the  air  with  their  shouting.  Thus 
simple  was  the  ceremonial  which  announced  that  a  nation  was 
born. 


XIII. 

OUR    COUNTRY'S    CRADLE. 

"  Peace,  which  in  our  country's  cradle 
Draws  the  sweet  infant  breath  of  gentle  sleep." 

SHAKESPEARE.    Richard  II.,  i.  3. 

THE  year  1789  saw  a  new  nation  in  its  cradle  in  the  city  of 
New  York.  Liberty  was  born,  but  had  yet  to  learn  how 
to  go  alone.  Political  precedents  were  still  to  be  established, 
social  customs  to  be  formed  anew.  New  York  City,  the  first 
seat  of  national  government,  had  warmly  welcomed  Washington, 
though  the  State  of  New  York  had  not  voted  for  him ;  and  now 
that  he  was  in  office,  men  and  women  waited  with  eager  interest 
to  see  what  kind  of  political  and  social  life  would  surround  him. 
The  city  then  contained  nearly  thirty- three  thousand  people. 
It  had  long  been  more  cosmopolitan  than  any  other  in  the  colo 
nies,  but  it  had  also  been  longer  occupied  by  the  British,  and 
had  been  more  lately  under  the  influence  of  loyal  traditions  and 
royal  officials.  This  influence  the  languid  sway  of  the  "  confed 
eration  "  had  hardly  dispelled.  What  condition  of  things  would 
the  newly  organized  republic  establish  ? 

It  was  a  period  of  much  social  display.  Class  distinctions 
still  prevailed  strongly,  for  the  French  Revolution  had  not  yet 
followed  the  American  Revolution  to  sweep  them  away.  Em 
ployers  were  still  called  masters ;  gentlemen  still  wore  velvets, 
damasks,  knee-breeches,  silk  stockings,  silver  buckles,  ruffled 
shirts,  voluminous  cravats,  scarlet  cloaks.  The  Revolution  had 


310  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

made  many  poor,  but  it  had  enriched  many,  and  money  was 
lavishly  spent.  People  gave  great  entertainments,  kept  tank 
ards  of  punch  on  the  table  for  morning  visitors  of  both  sexes, 
and  returned  in  sedan-chairs  from  evening  parties.  Dr.  Ma- 
nasseh  Cutler  went  to  a  dinner-party  of  forty-four  gentlemen  at 
the  house  of  General  Knox,  just  before  his  appointment  as  Sec 
retary  of  War.  All  the  guests  were  officers  of  the  late  Conti 
nental  army,  and  every  one,  except  Cutler  himself,  wore  the 
badge  of  the  Society  of  the  Cincinnati.  On  another  occasion 
he  dined  there  with  a  French  nobleman ;  the  dinner  was  served 
"  in  high  style,  much  in  the  French  style."  Mrs.  Knox  seemed 
to  him  to  mimic  "  the  military  style,"  which  he  found  "  very  dis 
gusting  in  a  female."  This  is  his  description  of  her  head-dress : 
"  Her  hair  in  front  is  craped  at  least  a  foot  high,  much  in  the 
form  of  a  churn  bottom  upward,  and  topped  off  with  a  wire 
skeleton  in  the  same  form,  covered  with  black  gauze,  which 
hangs  in  streamers  down  her  back.  Her  hair  behind  is  in  a 
large  braid,  and  confined  with  a  monstrous  crooked  comb." 

Mrs.  Knox's  head-dress  would  have  had  no  more  importance 
than  that  of  any  other  lady  of  the  period,  but  that  no  other  lady 
came  so  near  to  being  the  active  head  of  American  "  society  "  at 
the  outset  of  this  government.  General  Knox  and  his  wife  were 
two  people  of  enormous  size — were,  indeed,  said  to  be  the  larg 
est  couple  in  New  York — and  they  were  as  expansive  in  their 
hospitality  as  in  their  persons.  The  European  visitors,  who 
were  abundant  about  that  time,  and  especially  the  numerous 
Frenchmen  who  flocked  to  see  the  new  republic — and  who  then, 
as  now,  gravitated  naturally  to  that  society  where  they  were  best 
amused  —  turned  readily  to  Mrs.  Knox's  entertainments  from 
those  of  Mrs.  Washington.  One  traveller  even  complained  of 
the  new  President  that  his  bows  were  more  distant  and  stiff 
than  any  he  had  seen  in  England.  Of  the  other  members  of 
the  cabinet,  neither  Hamilton,  Jefferson,  nor  Randolph  was  in  a 
position  to  receive  company  in  the  grand  style,  so  that  during 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  311 

the  short  period  when  New  York  was  the  seat  of  government, 
the  house  of  the  Knoxes  in  Broadway  was  emphatically  the 
centre  of  social  vivacity  for  the  nation. 

This  was  a  matter  of  some  importance  when  more  political 
questions  were  settled  at  the  dinner-table  than  in  public  debate, 
and  when  Washington  himself  would  invite  his  subordinates  to 
discuss  affairs  of  State  "over  a  bottle  of  wine."  The  social  life 
of  any  community  is  always  the  foundation  of  its  political  life, 
and  this  was  especially  true  when  the  United  States  began  to 
exist,  because  there  was  a  general  suspicion  in  Europe  that  the 
new  republic  would  be  hopelessly  plebeian.  When  we  consider 
that  even  in  1845  an  English  lady  of  rank,  trying  to  dissuade 
Dickens  from  visiting  America,  said,  "  Why  do  you  not  go  down 
to  Brighton,  and  visit  the  third  and  fourth  rate  people  there  ? — 
that  would  be  just  the  same,"  we  know  that  she  only  expressed 
the  current  British  feeling,  which  must  have  existed  very  much 
more  strongly  in  1789.  What  could  be  the  social  condition  of 
that  country  whose  highest  official  had  never  been  in  Europe, 
and  did  not  speak  French  ?  Against  this  suspicion  the  six 
white  horses  of  President  Washington  were  a  comparatively 
slight  protest.  Mere  wealth  can  buy  horses ;  indeed,  they  are 
among  the  first  symptoms  of  wealth.  To  discerning  observers 
the  true  mark  of  superiority  was  to  be  found  in  the  grave  dig 
nity  of  the  man.  It  is  hard  to  see  how  he  acquired  that  trait 
among  the  jovial  fox-hunting  squires  in  whose  society  he  had 
been  reared ;  perhaps  his  real  training  was  in  his  long  and  si 
lent  expeditions  in  the  woods.  His  manners  and  his  bearing 
showed  the  marks  of  that  forest  life,  and  not  of  an  artificial 
society;  his  gait,  according  to  his  enthusiastic  admirer,  William 
Sullivan,  was  that  of  a  farmer  or  woodsman,  not  of  a  soldier; 
he  reminded  Josiah  Quincy  of  the  country  gentlemen  from 
Western  Massachusetts,  not  accustomed  to  mix  much  in  society, 
and  not  easy  or  graceful,  though  strictly  polite.  But  the  most 
genuine  personal  dignity  he  certainly  had ;  his  wife  sustained 


312  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

him  in  it — at  least  until  party  bitterness  began  to  prevail — and 
therefore  the  young  French  noblemen  found  his  manners  as 
unquestionably  good  as  their  own,  though  less  pliant. 

Nor  were  any  of  the  members  of  his  cabinet  wanting  in  this 
respect.  French  society  as  well  as  French  political  principles 
had  influenced  Jefferson,  and  he  showed  by  his  flattering  words 
to  Madame  De  Brehan  and  other  fine  ladies  that  he  had  culti 
vated  the  arts  of  a  courtier;  Hamilton  had  refined  manners, 
with  the  ready  adaptation  that  came  from  his  French  blood  and 
his  West  India  birth ;  Randolph  was  called  "  the  first  gentleman 
of  Virginia,"  though  described  by  Sullivan  as  grave  and  heavy 
in  aspect ;  while  the  cheerful  Knox  was  a  man  of  better  early 
education  than  any  of  these,  for  he  had  been  a  bookseller,  and 
his  bookstore  in  Boston  had  been,  it  is  recorded,  "  a  great  resort 
for  the  British  officers  and  Tory  ladies  who  were  the  ton  at  that 
period."  Tried  by  the  standard  of  the  time,  there  was  nothing 
to  be  ashamed  of,  but,  indeed,  quite  the  contrary,  in  the  bearing 
of  Washington's  cabinet  ministers.  John  Adams  was  Vice- 
president,  and  the  Chief-justice  was  the  high-minded  John  Jay. 
Both  these  men  had  agreeable  and  accomplished  wives.  Mrs. 
Adams  was  a  woman  of  much  social  experience  as  well  as  tal 
ent  and  character.  She  describes  Mrs.  Jay  as  "  showy  but 
pleasing,"  and  both  these  women  appear  to  greatest  advantage 
in  their  letters  to  their  respective  husbands.  As  to  the  house 
holds  of  the  cabinet  ministers,  Jefferson  was  a  widower;  Mrs. 
Knox  has  already  been  characterized ;  and  the  French  traveller 
Brissot  described  Mrs.  Hamilton  as  "  a  charming  woman,  who 
joined  to  the  graces  all  the  candor  and  simplicity  of  the  Amer 
ican  wife."  These  made  the  leading  official  families  at  the  seat 
of  government. 

The  French  Minister  at  that  time  was  the  Comte  de  Mous- 
tier,  whose  sister,  Madame  De  Brehan,  accompanied  him  to  this 
country.  Jefferson  had  assured  her  that  her  manners  were  a 
"  model  of  perfection,"  while  others  found  her  "  a  little,  singular, 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  313 

whimsical,  hysterical  old  woman.1'  His  secretary  of  legation 
was  M.  Otto,  part  of  whose  keen  and  penetrating  correspond 
ence  has  lately  been  translated  by  Mr.  Bancroft ;  he  had  married 
an  American  wife,  one  of  the  Livingston  family.  The  English 
Consul-general,  Sir  John  Temple,  had  also  married  an  Amer 
ican,  the  daughter  of  Governor  Bowdoin,  of  Massachusetts. 
These  were  the  leading  people  "  in  society  " — a  society  whose 
standard,  after  all,  was  not  luxurious  or  extravagant.  Oliver 
Wolcott  wTrote  to  his  wife  when  he  was  invited  to  come  to 
New  York  as  Auditor  of  the  Treasury :  "  The  example  of  the 
President  and  his  family  will  render  parade  and  expense  im 
proper  and  disreputable."  It  is  pleasant  to  add  that  after 
three  months'  stay  at  the  seat  of  government,  he  wrote  home 
to  his  mother,  "  Honesty  is  as  much  in  fashion  as  in  Con 
necticut." 

Mrs.  Washington's  receptions  were  reproached  as  "  intro 
ductory  to  the  pageantry  of  courts,"  but  it  was  very  modest 
pageantry.  Nothing  could  have  been  less  festive  or  more  harm 
less  than  the  hospitality  of  the  Presidential  abode.  An  English 
manufacturer  wrho  was  invited  there  to  breakfast  reports  a  meal 
of  admirable  simplicity — tea,  coffee,  sliced  tongue,  dry  toast,  and 
butter — "  but  no  broiled  fish,  as  is  the  general  custom,"  he  adds. 
At  her  evening  receptions  Mrs.  Washington  offered  her  guests 
tea  and  coffee  with  plum-cake ;  at  nine  she  warned  her  visitors 
that  the  general  kept  early  hours,  and  after  this  remark  the 
guests  had  no  choice  but  to  do  the  same.  At  these  entertain 
ments  of  hers  the  President  was  but  a  guest — without  his  sword 
— and  found  it  necessary  also  to  retreat  in  good  order  at  the 
word  of  command.  His  own  receptions  were  for  invited  guests 
only,  and  took  place  every  other  week  between  three  and  four 
P.M.  The  President  stood  before  the  fireplace  in  full  black  vel 
vet,  with  his  hair  powdered  and  gathered  into  a  bag ;  he  wore 
yellow  gloves  and  silver  buckles,  with  a  steel-hilted  sword  in  a 
white  leather  scabbard ;  he  held  in  his  hand  a  cocked  hat  with 


3 14  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

a  feather.  This  is  the  description  given  by  William  Sullivan, 
in  his  "  Familiar  Letters  on  Public  Characters." 

If  it  was  the  object  of  Washington  to  make  these  occasions 
stiff er  than  the  drawing-rooms  of  any  crowned  potentate,  he 
succeeded.  Names  were  announced,  gentlemen  were  presented, 
the  President  bowed,  but  never  shook  hands ;  at  a  quarter  past 
three  the  doors  were  closed,  and  the  visitors  formed  a  circle , 
the  President  made  the  circuit,  addressing  a  few  words  to  each ; 
then  they  bowed  and  retired.  It  is  hard  to  imagine  that  these 
mild  entertainments  could  have  been  severely  censured  as  ex 
travagant  or  monarchical ;  one  can  better  comprehend  how  the 
censure  could  be  applied  to  the  street  equipage  of  the  new  Pres 
ident — the  cream-colored  carriage  painted  in  medallions,  and  the 
liveries  of  white  turned  up  with  green.  Yet  these  were,  perhaps, 
more  readily  recognized  as  essential  to  the  dignity  of  his  station. 

It  was  with  the  desire  of  promoting  this  dignity  that  the 
Senators  of  the  new  nation  were  anxious  to  give  the  President 
an  official  title.  The  plan  was  said  to  have  originated  with 
John  Adams,  who  believed  "  splendor  and  majesty "  to  be  im 
portant  in  a  republic  ;  and  there  was  a  joint  committee  of  Con 
gress  to  consider  the  matter.  This  committee  reported  against 
it,  but  the  dissatisfied  Senate  still  favored  a  title,  as  it  well 
might,  at  a  time  when  the  Senators  themselves  were  habitually 
called  "  Most  Honorable."  They  proposed  to  call  the  Chief 
Magistrate  "  His  Highness,  the  President  of  the  United  States 
of  America,  and  Protector  of  their  Liberties."  The  House  ob 
jected ;  the  country  at  large  was  divided.  Chief-justice  McKean 
proposed  "  His  Serene  Highness ;"  somebody  else  suggested 
"The  President  -general ;"  and  Governor  Sullivan  thought  that 
"His  Patriotic  Majesty  "  would  not  be  inappropriate,  since  he 
represented  the  majesty  of  the  people.  Washington  himself,  it 
is  said,  favored  "  His  High  Mightiness,"  which  was  the  phrase 
used  by  the  Stadtholder  of  Holland.  It  was  the  common-sense 
of  the  nation  that  swept  these  extravagances  aside ;  it  was  one 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE. 


315 


AT   MRS.  WASHINGTON  S   RECEPTION. 


of  the  many  occasions  in  American  history  when  the  truth  of 
Talleyrand's  saying  has  been  vindicated,  that  everybody  knows 
more  than  anybody. 

But  when  it  became  needful  to  go  behind  these  externals, 
and  to  select  a  cabinet  ministry  for  the  actual  work  of  govern 
ment,  the  sane  and  quiet  judgment  of  Washington  made  itself 
felt.  At  that  period  the  cabinet  consisted  of  but  four  persons, 


3l6  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

and  it  was  the  theory  that  it  should  not  be  made  up  of  mere 
clerks  and  staff  officers,  but  of  the  ablest  and  most  conspicuous 
men  in  the  nation.  Washington  being  President,  Adams  and 
Jay  having  also  b£en  assigned  to  office,  there  naturally  followed 
the  two  men  who  had  contributed  most  in  their  different  ways 
to  the  intellectual  construction  of  the  nation.  Hamilton  and 
Jefferson  were  brought  together  in  the  cabinet  —  the  one  as 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  the  other  as  Secretary  of  State- 
not  because  they  agreed,  but  because  they  differed.  Tried  by 
all  immediate  and  temporary  tests,  it  is  impossible  to  deny  to 
Hamilton  the  position  of  leading  intellect  during  the  constitu 
tional  period ;  and  his  clear  and  cogent  ability  contrasts  strong 
ly  with  the  peculiar  mental  action,  always  fresh  and  penetrating, 
but  often  lawless  and  confused,  of  his  great  rival.  Hamilton 
was  more  coherent,  more  truthful,  more  combative,  more  gen 
erous,  and  more  limited.  His  power  was  as  an  organizer  and 
advocate  of  measures,  and  this  is  a  less  secure  passport  to 
fame  than  lies  in  the  announcement  of  great  principles.  The 
difference  between  Hamilton  and  Jefferson  on  questions  of 
finance  and  States-rights  was  only  the  symbol  of  a  deeper  diver 
gence.  The  contrast  between  them  was  not  so  much  in  acts 
as  in  theories ;  not  in  what  they  did,  but  in  what  they  dreamed. 
Both  had  their  visions,  and  held  to  them  ardently,  but  the  spirit 
of  the  nation  was  fortunately  stronger  than  either;  it  made 
Hamilton  support  a  republic  against  his  will,  and  made  Jeffer 
son  acquiesce,  in  spite  of  himself,  in  a  tolerably  strong  central 
government. 

There  is  not  a  trace  of  evidence  that  Hamilton,  even  when 
most  denounced  as  a  "  monocrat "  and  a  "  monist,"  ever  desired 
to  bring  about  a  monarchy  in  America.  He  no  doubt  believed 
the  British  constitution  to  be  the  most  perfect  model  of  govern 
ment  ever  devised  by  man ;  but  it  is  also  true,  as  Jefferson  him 
self  admitted,  that  Hamilton  saw  the  spirit  of  the  American 
people  to  be  wholly  republican.  This  is  just  what  Hamilton 


ALEXANDER   HAMILTON. 
[From  the  portrait  by  Weimar,  in  the  Governor's  Room,  New  York  City  Hall.] 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  319 

says  of  himself ;  all  his  action  was  based  on  the  opinion  "  that 
the  political  principle  of  this  country  would  endure  nothing  but 
republican  government."  Fisher  Ames,  his  ablest  ally,  said  the 
same  as  explicitly :  "  Monarchy  is  no  path  of  liberty — offers  no 
hopes.  It  could  not  stand ;  and  would,  if  tried,  lead  to  more 
agitation  and  revolution  than  anything  else."  What  Hamilton 
and  Ames  believed — and  very  reasonably,  so  far  as  the  mere 
teachings  of  experience  went  —  was  that  a  republic  was  an 
enormous  risk  to  run ;  and  they  drew  the  very  questionable 
conclusion  that  this  risk  must  be  diminished  by  making  the 
republic  as  much  like  a  monarchy  as  possible.  For  instance 
if  Hamilton  could  have  had  his  way,  only  holders  of  real  estate 
would  have  had  the  right  to  vote  for  President  and  Senators, 
and  these  would  have  held  office  for  life,  or  at  least  during  good 
behavior ;  the  President  would  have  appointed  all  the  Governors 
of  States,  and  they  would  have  had  a  veto  on  all  State  legisla 
tion.  All  this  he  announced  in  the  Constitutional  Convention, 
with  the  greatest  frankness,  not  hesitating  to  call  even  the 
British  House  of  Lords  "  a  most  noble  institution."  Having 
thus  indicated  his  ideal  government,  he  accepted  what  he  could 
get,  and  gave  his  great  powers  to  carrying  out  a  constitution 
about  which  he  had  serious  misgivings.  On  the  other  hand, 
if  Jefferson  could  have  had  his  way,  national  organization  would 
have  been  a  shadow.  "  Were  it  left  me  to  decide,"  he  once 
wrote,  "  whether  we  should  have  a  government  without  newspa 
pers  or  a  newspaper  without  a  government,  I  should  not  hesi 
tate  a  moment  to  prefer  the  latter."  He  accepted  the  constitu 
tion  as  a  necessary  evil,  tempered  by  newspapers — then  the  very 
worst  newspapers  that  ever  flourished  on  American  soil. 

"  Hamilton  and  I,"  wrote  Jefferson,  "  were  pitted  against 
each  other  every  day  in  the  cabinet,  like  two  fighting-cocks." 
The  first  passage  between  them  was  the  only  one  in  which 
Hamilton  had  clearly  the  advantage  of  his  less  practised  antag 
onist,  making  Jefferson,  indeed,  the  instrument  of  his  own  de- 


320  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

feat.  The  transfer  of  the  capital  to  the  banks  of  the  Potomac 
was  secured  by  the  first  of  many  compromises  between  the 
Northern  and  Southern  States,  after  a  debate  in  which  the 
formidable  slavery  question  showed  itself  often,  as  it  had  shown 
itself  at  the  very  formation  of  the  constitution.  The  removal 
of  the  capital  was  clearly  the  price  paid  by  Hamilton  for  Jeffer 
son's  acquiescence  in  his  first  great  financial  measure.  This 
measure  was  the  national  assumption  of  the  State  debts  to  an 
amount  not  to  exceed  twenty  million  dollars.  It  was  met  by 
vehement  opposition,  partly  because  it  bore  very  unequally  on 
the  States,  but  mainly  on  the  ground  that  the  claims  were  in  the 
hands  of  speculators,  and  were  greatly  depreciated.  Yet  it  was 
an  essential  part  of  that  great  series  of  financial  projects  on 
which  Hamilton's  fame  must  rest,  even  more  than  on  his  papers 
in  the  Federalist — though  these  secured  the  adoption  of  the 
constitution.  Three  measures  —  the  assumption  of  the  State 
debts,  the  funding  act,  and  the  national  bank  —  were  what 
changed  the  bankruptcy  of  the  new  nation  into  solvency  and 
credit.  There  may  be  question  as  to  the  good  or  bad  prece 
dents  established  by  these  enactments,  but  there  can  be  no 
doubt  as-  to  their  immediate  success.  Jefferson  opposed  them ; 
it  is  certain  that  Jefferson  never  could  have  originated  them  or 
carried  them  through.  The  financial  problem  —  the  first,  and 
in  one  sense  the  lowest  problem  to  be  met  by  the  new  govern 
ment — was  solved  by  Hamilton. 

It  seems  curious  to  find  in  the  correspondence  of  the  pub 
lic  men  of  that  day  so  little  that  relates  to  the  appointment  or 
removal  of  particular  officials.  '  One  reason  is  that  the  officials 
were  then  so  few.  The  whole  number  in  civil  office  during 
Washington's  administration  were,  in  his  own  phrase,  "  a  mere 
handful,"  and  during  his  two  Presidential  terms  he  removed 
but  eight,  all  for  cause,  this  list  not  including  Mr.  Pinckney, 
the  French  Minister,  who  was  recalled  by  desire  of  the  govern 
ment  of  that  nation.  The  question  of  removal  was  almost 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  321 

wholly  an  abstract  one,  but,  fortunately  for  us,  the  men  of  that 
period  had  a  great  taste  for  the  abstract  principles  of  govern 
ment ;  and  the  consequence  was  that  this  particular  question 
was  debated  as  fully  and  ardently  as  if  the  number  of  officials 
had  already  been  reckoned  by  tens  of  thousands.  Many  points 
in  the  prolonged  controversy  seem  like  the  civil  service  discus 
sions  of  to-day.  The  main  debate  took  place  in  the  House  of 
Representatives,  beginning  June  16,  1/89,  and  lasting  four 
days ;  and  it  is  fortunately  preserved  to  us  in  full  as  a  part  of 
the  appendix  to  "  Elliott's  Debates."  It  arose  on  the  bill  to 
-establish  the  Department  of  Foreign  Affairs,  afterwards  called 
the  State  Department.  It  was  moved  to  strike  out  the  words 
— as  applied  to  the  officer  thus  created — "  to  be  removable  from 
office  by  the  President  of  the  United  States."  The  importance 
of  the  subject  was  amply  recognized,  Mr.  Madison  going  so  far 
as  to  say :  "  The  decision  that  is  at  this  time  made  will  become 
the  permanent  exposition  of  the  constitution ;  and  on  a  perma 
nent  exposition  of  the  constitution  will  depend  the  genius  and 
character  of  the  whole  government."  He  and  others  took  the 
ground  that  in  no  way  could  full  executive  responsibility  be 
placed  upon  the  President  unless  he  had  a  corresponding 
power  over  his  subordinates.  All  the  familiar  arguments  in 
favor  of  a  strong  government  were  brought  forward,  and  they 
were  met  by  the  obvious  arguments  against  it.  "  This  clause 
of  the  bill,"  said  Mr.  Page,  of  North  Carolina,  "  contains  in  it 
the  seeds  of  royal  prerogative.  Everything  which  has  been 
said  in  favor  of  energy  in  the  Executive  may  go  to  the  destruc 
tion  of  freedom,  and  establish  despotism.  This  very  energy, 
so  much  talked  of,  has  led  many  patriots  to  the  Bastile,  to  the 
block,  and  to  the  halter." 

Perhaps  the  ablest  assailant  of  the  power  of  removal  was 
Elbridge  Gerry,  of  Massachusetts  —  he  through  wrhom  a  new 
and  permanent  phrase  was  added  to  the  American  dialect  in 
the  word  gerrymander.  He  claimed  in  this  debate  that  un- 

21 


322  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

limited  removal  from  office  belonged  only  to  a  king;  that  to 
a  four  years'  President  such  power  could  only  be  made  useful 
"by  being  the  means  of  procuring  him  a  re-election."  If  this 
step  were  taken,  he  said,  the  Presidency  should  be  for  life,  or 
even  hereditary.  With  some  foresight  of  our  later  experience 
he  added :  "  The  officers,  instead  of  being  the  machinery  of  the 
government,  moving  in  regular  order  prescribed  by  the  legislat 
ure,  will  be  the  mere  puppets  of  the  President,  to  be  employed 
or  thrown  aside  as  useless  lumber  according  to  his  fancy."  His 
arguments  did  not  prevail ;  the  clause  was  retained  by  a  vote  of 
34  to  20,  and  after  some  further  modification  the  bill  passed  by 
a  small  majority  in  the  House,  and  by  the  casting  vote  of  the 
Vice-president  in  the  Senate.  The  result  of  that  vote  has  not 
been  followed  by  quite  the  evils  that  Page  and  Gerry  feared, 
but  it  has  undoubtedly  influenced,  as  Madison  predicted,  the 
genius  and  character  of  the  whole  government  It  is  to  be 
remembered  that  no  prophetic  vision  had  yet  revealed  to  any 
one  the  vast  future  population  for  which  Congress  was  legislat 
ing,  and  Madison  plainly  thought  himself  making  a  very  bold 
guess  when  he  estimated  that  it  might  "  in  some  years  "  double 
in  number,  and  reach  six  millions. 

On  the  1 6th  of  July,  1790,  Congress  made  up  its  mind  to 
remove  to  the  banks  of  the  Potomac,  but  before  the  site  was 
fixed  upon,  the  seat  of  government  was  temporarily  transferred 
(in  November,  1790)  to  Philadelphia,  then  the  largest  town  in 
the  country,  and  claiming  to  be  regarded  as  its  metropolis. 
The  French  visitors  criticised  the  city,  found  its  rectangular 
formation  tiresome,  and  the  habits  of  its  people  sad ;  but  Amer 
icans  thought  it  gay  and  delightful.  Brissot  de  Warville  de 
clared  that  the  pretensions  of  the  ladies  were  "  too  affected  to 
be  pleasing,"  and  the  Comte  de  Rochambeau  said  that  the  wives 
of  merchants  went  to  the  extreme  of  French  fashions.  Mrs. 
John  Adams,  who  had  lived  in  Europe,  complained  of  a  want 
of  etiquette,  but  found  Philadelphia  society  eminently  friendly 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  323 

and  agreeable.  Superior  taste  and  a  livelier  wit  were  habitu 
ally  claimed  for  the  Philadelphia  ladies.  It  was  said  by  a  viva 
cious  maiden  who  went  from  that  city  to  New  York — Rebecca 
Franks,  afterwards  Lady  Johnston — that  the  Philadelphia  belles 
had  "  more  cleverness  in  the  turn  of  an  eye  than  those  of  New 
York  in  their  whole  composition."  In  the  latter  city,  she  said, 


MRS.   BINGHAM. 


there  was  no  conversation  without  the  aid  of  cards ;  in  Phila 
delphia  the  chat  never  flagged.  There  were  plenty  of  leading 
ladies.  Mrs.  Knox  was  still  conspicuous,  playing  perpetual 
whist.  Mrs.  Bingham  was  the  most  charming  of  hostesses; 
and  among  women  coming  from  other  parts  of  the  country,  and 
celebrated  for  character  or  beauty,  were  Mrs.  Theodore  Sedg- 
wick,  of  Massachusetts,  and  Mrs.  Oliver  Wolcott,  of  Litchfield, 


324  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

Connecticut.  It  was  of  the  latter  that  the  story  is  told  that  the 
British  Minister  said  to  Senator  Tracy,  of  Connecticut :  "  Your 
countrywoman  would  be  admired  at  St.  James's."  "  Sir,"  said  the 
patriotic  American,  "she  is  admired  even  on  Litchfield  Hill." 

There  was  in  Philadelphia  a  theatre  which'  was  much  at 
tended,  and  which  must  have  had  a  rather  exceptional  company 
for  that  period,  inasmuch  as  Chief-justice  Jay  assured  his  wife 
that  it  was  composed  of  "decent,  moral  people."  In  society, 
habits  were  not  always  quite  moral,  or  conversation  always  quite 
decent.  Gentlemen,  according  to  John  Adams,  sat  till  eleven 
o'clock  over  their  after-dinner  wine,  and  drank  healths  in  that 
elaborate  way  which  still  amazes  the  American  visitor  in  Eng 
land.  Nay,  young  ladies,  if  we  may  accept  Miss  Rebecca  Franks 
as  authority,  drank  each  other's  health  out  of  punch  tankards  in 
the  morning.  Gambling  prevailed  among  both  sexes.  It  was 
not  uncommon  to  hear  that  a  man  or  woman  had  lost  three 
or  four  hundred  dollars  in  an  evening.  An  anonymous  letter- 
writer,  quoted  in  Mr.  Griswold's  "  Republican  Court,"  declares 
that  some  resident  families  could  not  have  supported  the  cost 
of  their  entertainments  and  their  losses  at  loo,  but  that  they 
had  the  adroitness  to  make  the  temporary  residents  pay  their 
expenses.  At  balls  people  danced  country-dances,  the  partners 
being  designated  beforehand  by  the  host,  and  being  usually  un 
changed  during  the  whole  evening — though  "  this  severity  was 
sometimes  mitigated,"  in  the  language  of  the  Marquis  de  Chas- 
tellux — and  the  supper  was  served  about  midnight.  Talleyrand, 
in  later  years,  looking  back  on  the  Philadelphia  of  that  pe 
riod,  found  its  luxury  a  theme  for  sarcasm  in  quality  as  well  as 
quantity:  Leur  luxe  est  affreux,  he  said.  Going  beyond  the  strict 
circles  of  fashion,  we  find  that  some  social  peculiarities  which 
we  regard  as  recent  seem  to  have  existed  in  full  force  at  the 
very  foundation  of  the  republic.  The  aversion  of  white  Amer 
icans  to  domestic  service,  the  social  freedom  given  to  young 
girls,  the  habit  of  eating  hot  bread  —  these  form  the  constant 


OUR   COUNTRY'S   CRADLE,  325 

theme  of  remark  by  the  French  visitors  in  the  time  of  Wash 
ington.  In  some  physiological  matters  American  habits  are 
now  unquestionably  modified  for  the  better.  Chastellux  reports 
that  at  the  best  dinners  of  the  period  there  was  usually  but 
one  course  besides  the  dessert ;  and  Volney  describes  people  as 
drinking  very  strong  tea  immediately  after  this  meal,  and  clos- 


MRS.  THEODORE   SEDGWICK. 


ing  the  evening  with  a  supper  of  salt  meat.  At  other  points, 
again,  the  national  traits  seem  to  have  been  bewilderingly  trans 
formed  by  the  century  that  has  since  passed.  The  Chevalier  de 
Beaujour  describes  Americans  as  usually  having  ruddy  com 
plexions,  but  without  delicacy  of  feature  or  play  of  expression  ; 
whereas  all  these  characteristics  will  be  found  by  the  testimony 
of  later  travellers  to  be  now  precisely  reversed,  the  features 


326  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

having  grown  delicate,  the  expression  vivacious,  and  the  com- 
plexion  pale. 

The  standard  of  women's  education  was  still  low,  and  in 
society  they  had  to  rely  on  native  talent  and  the  conversation 
of  clever  men ;  yet  Mercy  Warren's  history  had  been  accepted 
as  a  really  able  work,  and  Phillis  Wheatley's  poems  had  passed 
for  a  phenomenon.  Mrs.  Morton,  of  Massachusetts,  also,  under 
the  name  of  "  Philenia,"  had  published  a  poem  called  "  Beacon 
Hill,"  of  which  Robert  Treat  Paine,  himself  a  man  of  ability, 
had  written  in  this  admiring  strain: 

"  Beacon  shall  live,  the  theme  of  future  lays, 
Philenia  bids ;  obsequious  time  obeys. 
Beacon  shall  live,  embalmed  in  verse  sublime, 
The  new  Parnassus  of  a  nobler  clime." 

The  original  beacon  has  long  since  fallen ;  the  hill  to  which  it 
gave  its  name  has  been  much  cut  down ;  and  the  fame  of 
Philenia  has  been  yet  more  sadly  obliterated.  Yet  she  and 
such  as  she  undoubtedly  contributed  to  the  vague  suspicions 
of  monarchical  design  which  began  to  array  themselves  against 
Washington.  For  did  not  these  tuneful  people  write  birthday 
odes  to  him ;  and  were  not  birthday  odes  clearly  monarchical  ? 

Great  men  are  sometimes  influenced  by  minor  considera 
tions.  It  is  probable  that  Washington's  desire  to  retire  from 
the  Presidency  after  one  term  was  largely  due  to  the  public 
criticisms  on  such  innocent  things  as  these  melodious  flatteries 
and  Mrs.  Washington's  receptions.  But  he  was  still  overwhelm 
ingly  popular,  and  his  re-election  in  1792  was  unanimous,  John 
Adams  being  again  Vice-president,  and  the  seat  of  government 
being  still  Philadelphia.  It  was  thought  at  first  by  both  Jeffer 
son  and  Hamilton  that  the  ceremony  of  a  re-inaugration  should 
be  a  wholly  private  one  at  the  President's  house,  but  it  was 
finally  decided  by  the  cabinet  that  it  should  be  public  and  in 
the  Senate-chamber.  Washington  thus  entered  on  a  second 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  327 

term  of  office,  which  was  destined  to  be  far  stormier  than  his 
first  term.  There  were  the  Indian  troubles  to  be  settled,  the 
whiskey  insurrection  in  Pennsylvania  to  be  curbed,  and  the  bal 
ance  of  neutrality  to  be  kept  between  France  and  England. 
The  first  two  questions,  though  they  seemed  to  belong  to  mili 
tary  matters  alone,  were  yet  complicated  with  politics,  and  the 
last  was  interwoven  with  the  public  affairs  of  all  Europe.  No 
President,  except  Abraham  Lincoln,  has  ever  yet  had  to  deal 
with  questions  so  difficult ;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that 
Lincoln  had  behind  him  the  aid  of  national  traditions  already 
formed,  while  Washington  dealt  with  a  newly  organized  govern 
ment,  and  had  to  create  even  the  traditions. 

The  great  scheme  for  filling  the  North-western  Territory 
with  settlers  had  seriously  lagged.  Great  Britain  still  held  her 
posts  there ;  this  encouraged  the  Indian  tribes  who  had  never 
been  included  in  the  treaty  of  peace.  It  was  at  this  time  that 
Kentucky  earned  the  name  of  the  "  dark  and  bloody  ground," 
more  than  fifteen  hundred  of  her  pioneer  settlers  having  been 
killed  or  captured  within  a  few  years.  General  Mercer  was 
sent  against  the  Indians  with  a  small  body  of  men  in  1790,  and 
was  defeated;  General  St.  Clair  was  ordered  out  the  following 
year,  with  a  much  larger  force,  and  was  beaten  disastrously, 
losing  nearly  a  thousand  men  and  many  cannon.  Washington 
tried  in  vain  to  reach  the  Indians  by  treaty,  and  it  took  "  Mad 
Anthony  Wayne  "  and  five  thousand  men  to  bring  about  peace 
at  last.  Near  the  site  of  what  is  now  Cincinnati,  Wayne  made 
his  winter  camp  in  1 793 ;  he  built  forts  to  strengthen  his  for 
ward  march,  and  in  August,  1794,  fought  the  battle  of  Maumee 
Rapids  against  Indians  and  Canadians,  with  the  aid  of  eleven 
hundred  Kentucky  volunteers.  In  this  battle  he  completely 
and  finally  routed  the  Miami  Indians,  with  a  loss  of  but  one 
hundred  men,  and  within  sight  of  a  British  fort;  and  he  forced 
the  enemy  to  cease  hostilities.  On  August  3,  1 795,  Wayne 
stood  in  presence  of  more  than  a  thousand  Indians  at  one  of 


328  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

his  forts,  now  Greenville,  Ohio,  and  there  made  a  treaty  which 
put  an  end  to  the  Indian  wars.  This,  with  the  provisions  of 
Jay's  treaty  with  England,  presently  to  be  mentioned,  flung 
open  the  Western  country  to  the  tide  of  settlers. 

The  French  Revolution,  passing  from  its  period  of  promise 
into  its  epoch  of  terror,  had  divided  American  feeling  as  it  had 
not  before  been  sundered.  This  formidable  French  question 
had  ceased  to  be  a.  mere  test  of  political  sympathy ;  it  was  a 
matter  of  social  feeling  as  well.  England  was  the  traditional 
enemy  of  the  nation ;  France  the  traditional  friend ;  yet  France 
was  causing  horror  to  the  world,  while  England  stood  for  estab 
lished  order.  Those  who  had  tried  to  save  the  American  ex 
periment  by  keeping  as  near  the  English  constitution  as  possi 
ble  might  well  point  to  France  as  the  example  of  the  oppo 
site  method.  Accordingly,  the  Federalists,  who  comprised  the 
wealthier  and  more  prominent  class  of  the  nation,  renewed  their 
fidelity  to  the  English  traditions.  They  called  the  Democrats 
sans  culottes,  and  regarded  them  not  merely  as  belonging  to  the 
less  educated  and  less  dignified  class — which  was  true — but  as 
socially  polluted  and  degraded.  When  the  President's  wife 
found  that  her  granddaughter,  Nelly  Custis,  had  been  receiving 
a  guest  in  her  absence,  she  asked  who  it  was ;  then  noticing  a 
stain  where  a  head  had  rested  against  the  straw-colored  wall 
paper,  she  exclaimed:  "It  was  no  Federalist:  none  but  a  filthy 
Democrat  would  mark  the  wall  with  his  good-for-nothing  head 
in  that  manner."  Such  remarks,  when  repeated  from  mouth  to 
mouth,  did  not  conduce  to  the  amenities  of  life. 

Yet  the  good  lady  had  plenty  of  provocation.  Much  could 
be  pardoned  to  a  wife  who  had  seen  on  printed  handbills  the 
coarse  wood-cuts  that  represented  Washington  as  placed  upon 
the  guillotine  like  the  French  king.  Such  a  caricature,  when 
injudiciously  shown  by  Knox  to  the  President  at  a  cabinet  meet 
ing,  drove  him  into  "  a  transport  of  passion,"  according  to  the 
not  always  trustworthy  record  of  Jefferson  ;  how,  then,  could  his 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  329 

wife  be  indifferent  to  it  ?  There  was  really  nothing  serious  to 
quarrel  about  in  the  home  affairs  of  the  country.  The  charge 
of  monarchical  tendencies  amounted  to  nothing ;  the  clear 
headed  Oliver  Wolcott  wrote  that  he  could  not  find  a  man  of 
sense  who  seriously  believed  it ;  and  yet  Washington  was  abused 
as  if  he  carried  a  crown  in  his  pocket.  These  attacks  came 
most  furiously  from  the  poet  Freneau  in  his  National  Gazette, 
established  October  31,  1791;  and  Jefferson,  in  whose  office 
Freneau  was  translating  clerk,  declared  that  this  newspaper  had 
saved  the  constitution,  which-  was  "galloping  fast  into  mon 
archy  ;"  that  it  had  "  checked  the  career  of  the  Monocrats,"  and 
the  like.  Washington  must  have  chafed  all  the  more  under 
these  attacks  because  the  editor,  with  persistent  and  painful 
courtesy,  sent  him  four  copies  of  every  issue — a  refinement  of 
cruelty  such  as  our  milder  times  can  hardly  parallel. 

All  these  troubles  were  exasperated  by  the  arrival,  on  April 
9,  1793,  of  the  first  envoy  of  the  new  French  republic,  M.  Genet. 
He  was  received  with  a  display  of  enthusiasm  that  might  have 
turned  any  man's  head,  and  his,  apparently,  needed  no  turning. 
His  journey  from  Charleston,  South  Carolina,  to  Philadelphia 
was  like  the  reception  of  Lafayette ;  all  the  triumphant  rights 
of  man  were  supposed  to  be  embodied  in  him,  and  the  airs  he 
took  upon  himself  seem  now  incredible.  He  undertook  to  fit 
out  privateers  in  American  ports,  and  to  bring  prizes  into  those 
ports  for  condemnation  by  French  consuls ;  and  when  Wash 
ington  checked  this  impertinence,  he  threatened  to  appeal  from 
Washington  to  the  people.  The  nation  was  instantly  divided 
into  two  parties,  and  whatever  extravagances  the  French  sym 
pathizers  might  commit,  the  Federalists  doubled  them  in  imagi 
nation.  They  sincerely  believed  that  all  sorts  of  horrors  were 
transacted  at  the  banquets  given  to  Genet ;  that  the  guests  in 
turn  wore  the  red  revolutionary  cap — the  bonnet  rouge ;  that  a 
roasted  pig  received  the  name  of  the  slain  King  of  France,  and 
that  the  severed  head  was  offered  in  turn  to  each  guest,  who 


330  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

exclaimed,  theatrically,  "  Tyrant !"  and  struck  it  with  his  knife. 
These  stories  may  have  been  chiefly  false,  but  they  produced 
as  much  effect  as  if  they  had  been  true.  On  the  other  hand, 
Genet  behaved  so  foolishly  and  insolently  that  Jefferson  had  to 
abandon  his  cause.  "  If  our  citizens,"  he  wrote,  "  have  not  al 
ready  been  shedding  each  other's  blood,  it  is  not  owing  to  the 
moderation  of  Mr.  Genet."  Jefferson  himself  assented  to  Wash 
ington's  proclamation  of  neutrality  (April  22,  1793),  though  he 
rejoiced  that  it  was  not  issued  under  that  precise  name.  In 
deed,  throughout  the  excitement,  Jefferson  seems  to  have  con 
tributed  only  the  needful  influence  to  do  justice  to  the  French 
view  of  the  question,  and  was  less  extravagant  in  that  way  than 
Hamilton  on  the  other  side. 

But  after  all  these  extravagances,  real  or  reputed,  it  was  nat 
ural  that  every  outbreak  should  be  charged  to  the  "  democratic 
societies."  Washington  thought  that  they  instigated  the  Whis 
key  Insurrection  which  arose  in  Pennsylvania  in  1794  against 
the  excise  laws — an  insurrection  which  denounced  such  laws  as 
"  the  horror  of  all  free  States,"  and  went  so  far  as  to  threaten 
separation  from  the  Union.  It  was  Hamilton  who  had  framed 
the  law  which  caused  the  revolt,  and  Hamilton  contributed  the 
admirable  suggestion  by  which  it  was  quelled.  His  plan  was 
to  call  out  so  large  a  force  as  instantly  to  overawe  the  insurrec 
tion  and  crush  it  without  firing  a  shot  Washington  according 
ly  summoned  out  13,000  militia,  and  the  work  was  done.  Un 
fortunately  it  led  to  the  reaction  which  usually  follows  a  com 
plete  strategic  success — people  turn  round  and  say  that  there 
never  was  any  danger.  The  most  skilful  victories  even  in  war 
are  the  bloodless  ones,  but  it  is  apt  to  be  bloodshed  alone  that 
wins  laurels.  It  happened  thus  in  this  case.  Jefferson  declared 
the  affair  to  have  been  merely  a  riot,  and  not  nearly  so  bad  as 
the  excise  law  which  created  it ;  he  held  to  the  theory  which  he 
had  announced  during  Shays's  rebellion,  that  an  occasional  pop 
ular  commotion  was  a  good  remedy  for  too  much  government. 


OUR   COUNTRY'S  CRADLE.  331 

Jay's  treaty  with  England  (November  19,  1794)  was  the 
turning-point  of  the  personal  popularity  of  Washington.  From 
that  time  a  large  and  increasing  minority  opposed  the  Presi 
dent  with  all  the  bitterness  of  the  period ;  that  is,  furiously. 
The  treaty  secured  the  withdrawal  of  the  British  garrisons  from 
the  North-west,  and  it  guaranteed  payment  from  the  British 
treasury  for  all  illegal  captures — a  payment  that  amounted  to 
ten  millions  of  dollars.  So  far  it  might  have  been  popular,  but 
it  provided  also  for  the  payment  of  all  debts  owed  before  the 
Revolution  by  Americans  to  British  subjects,  and  this  would 
have  been  enough  to  make  it  unpalatable.  But  it  also  had  to 
encounter  the  rising  sympathy  for  France,  and  this  led  to  the 
most  vehement  opposition.  The  indignation  against  it  broke 
out  in  mobs.  Jay  was  burned  or  hanged  in  effigy  in  several 
cities ;  Adams  was  in  one  case  hanged  beside  him,  with  a  purse 
of  English  guineas  in  his  hand ;  and  the  treaty  itself  was  burned 
in  Philadelphia  by  a  mob  of  ten  thousand  people,  before  the 
windows  of  the  British  Minister.  Hamilton,  in  speaking  for  it 
at  a  public  meeting  in  New  York,  was  assailed  by  a  volley  of 
stones.  "  Gentlemen,"  he  said,  "  if  you  use  such  strong  argu 
ments,  I  must  retire."  But  he  only  retired  to  write  a  series  of 
papers  in  defence  of  the  treaty,  which  was  ratified  by  just  the 
needful  two-thirds  vote,  after  a  fortnight  of  discussion. 

We  think  of  those  times  as  purer  than  the  present ;  yet  the 
perennial  moaning  over  the  decline  of  the  republic  had  already 
begun  in  the  first  decade  of  its  existence.  Fauchet,  the  French 
minister  who  succeeded  Genet,  declared,  truly  or  falsely,  that 
Edmund  Randolph,  who  was  at  first  Attorney-general,  but  had 
now  succeeded  Jefferson  as  Secretary  of  State,  had  come  to  him 
and  asked  for  a  bribe  to  espouse  the  French  side.  "  Thus,"  said 
the  indignant  Frenchman,  "  the  consciences  of  the  pretended 
patriots  of  America  have  already  their  prices.  What  will  be  the 
old  age  of  this  government  if  it  is  thus  already  decrepit !"  And 
as  to  political  violence,  the  habitual  abuse  of  Washington  went 


332  HISTORY  OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 

on  increasing;  the  Democratic  Republicans  spoke  of  him  habit 
ually  in  their  private  meetings  as  "  Montezuma ;"  they  allowed 
him  neither  uprightness,  nor  pecuniary  honesty,  nor  military 
ability,  nor  even  personal  courage.  He  himself  wrote  that  every 
act  of  his  administration  was  tortured,  and  the  grossest  misrep 
resentations  made  "  in  such  exaggerated  and  indecent  terms  as 
could  scarcely  be  applied  to  a  Nero,  to  a  notorious  defaulter,  or 
even  to  a  common  pickpocket." 

His  farewell  address  was  made  public  in  September,  1796, 
and  he  met  Congress  December  7th,  for  the  last  time.  The  elec 
toral  votes,  as  counted  by  the  Senate  in  the  following  February 
(1797),  showed  John  Adams,  of  Massachusetts,  to  have  the  high 
est  number,  and  he  w-as  declared  President-elect;  while  Jefferson, 
who  had  the  next  number,  was  pronounced  to  be  the  Vice-presi 
dent-elect,  according  to  a  constitutional  provision  since  altered. 
On  his  last  day  in  office  Washington  wrote  to  Knox  comparing 
himself  to  "  the  weary  traveller  wrho  sees  a  resting-place,  and  is 
bending  his  body  to  lean  thereon.  To  be  suffered  to  do  this  in 
peace,"  he  added,  "  is  too  much  to  be  endured  by  some."  Ac 
cordingly,  on  that  very  day  a  Philadelphia  newspaper  dismissed 
him  with  a  final  tirade,  whose  wild  folly  is  worth  remembering 
by  all  who  think  that  political  virulence  is  on  the  increase  : 

" '  Lord  now  lettest  thou  Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have 
seen  Thy  salvation  !'  This  was  the  exclamation  of  a  man  who  saw  a  flood  of 
blessedness  breaking  in  upon  mankind.  If  ever  there  was  a  time  that  allowed 
this  exclamation  to  be  repeated,  that  time  is  the  present.  The  man  who  is  the 
source  of  all  our  country's  misery  is  this  clay  reduced  to  the  rank  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  has  no  longer  the  power  to  multiply  the  woes  of  these  United 
States.  Now  more  than  ever  is  the  time  to  rejoice.  Every  heart  which  feels 
for  the  liberty  and  happiness  of  the  people  must  now  beat  with  rapture  at  the 
thought  that  this  day  the  name  of  Washington  ceases  to  give  currency  to  injus 
tice  and  to  legalize  corruption.  .  .  .  When  we  look  back  upon  the  eight  years  of 
Washington's  administration,  it  strikes  us  with  astonishment  that  one  man  could 
thus  poison  the  principles  of  republicanism  among  our  enlightened  people,  and- 
carry  his  designs  against  the  public  liberty  so  far  as  to  endanger  its  very  exist 
ence.  Yet  such  is  the  fact,  and  if  this  is  apparent  to  all,  this  day  should  form 
a  jubilee  in  the  United  States." 


XIV. 

THE  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS. 

AN  acute  foreign  observer  said  well,  in  the  days  when  John 
Adams  was  President,  that  there  seemed  to  be  in  the 
United  States  many  Englishmen,  many  Frenchmen,  but  very 
few  Americans.  The  reason  was  that  the  French  Revolution 
really  drew  a  red-hot  ploughshare  through  the  history  of  Amer 
ica  as  well  as  through  that  of  France.  It  not  merely  divided 
parties,  but  moulded  them :  gave  them  their  demarcations,  their 
watchwords,  and  their  bitterness.  The  home  issues  were  for 
a  time  subordinate,  collateral ;  the  real  party  lines  were  estab 
lished  on  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic. 

Up  to  the  time  when  the  Constitution  was  formed,  it  is 
curious  to  see  that  France  was  only  the  friend  of  the  young 
nation,  not  its  political  counsellor.  The  proof  of  this  is  that,  in 
the  debates  which  formed  the  Constitution,  France  was  hardly 
mentioned ;  the  authorities,  the  illustrations,  the  analogies,  were 
almost  all  English.  Yet  the  leading  statesmen  of  the  period- 
Franklin,  Jay,  Adams,  Jefferson — had  been  resident  in  Paris  as 
diplomatists ;  and  Hamilton  was  of  French  descent  on  the 
mother's  side.  France,  however,  gave  them  no  model  for  imi 
tation  ;  the  frame  of  government,  where  it  was  not  English,  was 
simply  American.  A  few  years  more,  and  all  was  changed ;  in 
America,  as  in  Europe,  the  French  Revolution  was  the  absorb 
ing  theme.  The  American  newspapers  of  the  day  existed  main 
ly  to  give  information  about  foreign  affairs;  and  they  really 


334 


HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 


gave  more  space  to  France  than  to  their  own  country.  They 
told  something  about  the  wrongs  of  the  French  people,  though 
few  besides  Jefferson  took  them  seriously  to  heart.  They  told 
a  great  deal  about  the  horrors  of  the  outbreak,  and  here  men 
divided.  American  political  parties  are  to-day  still  imbittered 

by    the    traditions     of 
that  great  division. 


Those  who  had 
always  distrusted  the 
masses  of  the  people 
inevitably  began  to 
distrust  them  more 
than  ever.  They  read 
Burke's  "  Reflections 
on  the  French  Revo 
lution,"  they  read  Can 
ning's  editorials,  and 
they  attributed  the 
French  excesses  to 
innate  depravity,  to 
atheism,  to  madness. 
Let  the  people  have 
its  own  way,  they  ar 
gued,  and  it  will  al 
ways  wish  to  cut  off 

the  heads  of  the  better  classes,  or  swing  them  up  to  the  street- 
lantern.  Those  who  thus  reasoned  were  themselves  the  better 
classes,  in  the  ordinary  sense ;  they  \vere  the  clergy,  the  lawyers, 
the  planters,  the  merchants — the  men  who  had,  or  thought  they 
had,  the  largest  stake  in  the  country.  The  Frenchmen  they  had 
seen  w^ere  the  young  men  of  rank  and  fortune  who  had  helped 
America  to  fight  through  the  Revolution  —  generous,  high- 
souled,  joyous  young  soldiers,  of  whom  Lafayette  was  the  con 
spicuous  type.  Of  the  same  class  were  the  Frenchmen  who  had 


COUNT    FERSEN. 


THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  335 

visited  America  since  the  Revolution ;  who  had  been  pleased 
with  everything  and  had  flattered  everybody.  The  handsome 
Count  Fersen,  who  had  charmed  all  hearts  at  Newport,  was  the 
very  man  who  had,  in  the  disguise  of  a  coachman,  driven  the 
French  king  and  queen  in  their  escape  from  Paris.  Lauzun, 
the  brilliant  commander  of  French  cavalry  under  Rochambeau, 
was  also  the  picturesque  hero  who  refused  to  have  his  hands 
tied  on  ascending  the  guillotine,  but  said  gayly  to  the  execution 
er,  "  We  are  both  Frenchmen  ; .  we  shall  do  our  duty."  Who 
could  help  sympathizing  with  these  fine  young  fellows  ?  But 
this  revolutionist  in  the  red  cap,  this  Jacques  with  wooden  shoes, 
these  knitting  women,  these  terrible  tricoteuses,  the  Federalists 
had  not  seen ;  and  doubtless  the  nearer  they  had  seen  them 
the  less  they  would  have  liked  them.  Consequently,  like  Burke, 
they  "  pitied  the  plumage,  but  forgot  the  dying  bird."  To  them 
everything  French  was  now  pernicious ;  the  Reign  of  Terror 
was  not  much  worse  than  was  the  career  of  those  more  mod 
erate  revolutionists  who  resisted  that  terror  or  fell  beneath  it. 
The  opinions  of  this  party  were  best  represented  by  that  cele 
brated  periodical,  the  Anti -Jacobin,  now  chiefly  remembered  by 
Canning's  best  known  poem,  "  The  Needy  Knife-Grinder."  But 
the  Anti-Jacobin  lashed  every  grade  of  Frenchman  and  French 
woman  with  equal  bitterness,  if  they  took  the  side  of  the  peo 
ple  ;  assailed  Madame  Roland  and  Madame  De  Stael  as  coarse 
ly  as  it  denounced  Robespierre  or  Danton.  The  American 
Federalists  held  the  same  attitude. 

To  look  below  the  surface  of  the  French  Revolution,  to  see 
in  it  the  righting  of  a  vast  wrong,  to  find  in  that  wrong  some 
explanation  of  its  very  excesses,  this  view — now  so  generally 
accepted — was  confined  to  a  very  few  of  the  leaders:  Jefferson, 
Samuel  Adams,  Albert  Gallatin.  Here,  as  is  usual,  the  reformer 
found  secret  affinities  with  the  demagogue.  It  is  easier  for  the 
demagogue  than  for  any  one  else  to  pose  for  a  time  as  a  reform 
er,  and  even  to  be  mistaken  for  one ;  and  on  the  other  hand  the 


HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

reformer  is  always  tempted  to  make  excuses  for  the  dema 
gogue,  since  he  himself  has  usually  to  wage  war  against  the 
respectable  classes.  Some  men  were  Federalists  because  they 
were  high-minded,  others  because  they  were  narrow-minded; 
while  the  more  far-sighted,  and  also  the  less  scrupulous,  became 
Democrats — or,  in  the  original  name,  Republicans.  They  used 
this  last  term  not  in  the  rather  vague  sense  of  current  American 
politics,  but  in  a  much  more  definite  manner.  In  calling  them 
selves  Republicans  they  sincerely  believed  that  nobody  else 
wished  well  to  the  republic.  Thus  the  party  lines  which  we 
should  have  expected  to  find  drawn  simply  on  American  ques 
tions  were  in  fact  almost  wholly  controlled  by  European  politics. 
The  Federalists  were  in  sympathy  with  England ;  the  Demo 
crats,  or  Republicans,  with  France ;  and  this  determined  the 
history  of  the  nation,  its  treaties  and  its  parties,  through  a  series 
of  administrations. 

The  Federalist  President-elect  was  John  Adams — a  man  of 
great  pith  and  vigor,  whose  letters  and  diaries  are  more  racy 
than  those  of  any  man  of  that  day,  though  his  more  elaborate 
writings  are  apt  to  be  prolix  and  dull,  like  those  of  the  others. 
He  was  a  self-made  man,  as  people  say,  and  one  who  had  a 
strong  natural  taste  for  rank  and  ceremony ;  even  having,  as 
John  Randolph  complained,  "arms  emblazoned  on  the  'scutch 
eon  of  the  vice-regal  carriage."  The  more  he  held  to  this  aris 
tocratic  position,  the  more  people. remarked  his  original  want  of 
it ;  and  there  have  lived  within  twenty  years  in  Boston  old  ladies 
who  still  habitually  spoke  of  him  as  "  that  cobbler's  son."  But 
he  was  a  man,  moreover,  of  extraordinary  sense  and  courage, 
combined  with  an  explosive  temper,  and  a  decided  want  of  tact. 
He  had  at  first  the  public  sentiment  of  New  England  behind 
him,  and  a  tolerably  united  party.  Having  been  Vice-president 
under  Washington,  he  seemed  to  be  the  natural  successor;  and 
the  peculiar  arrangement  then  prevailing,  by  which  the  Vice- 
president  was  not  voted  for  as  a  distinct  officer,  but  was  simply 


JOHN    ADAMS. 
[Engraved  by  G.  Krue'.l,  from  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  owned  by  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge,  Esq.,  Boston.] 


THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  339 

the  Presidential  candidate  who  stood  second  on  the  list,  led  to 
many  complications  of  political  manoeuvring,  the  result  of  which 
was  that  John  Adams  had  71  electoral  votes,  and  became  Presi 
dent,  while  Thomas  Jefferson  had  68  votes,  and  took  the  next 
place,  greatly  to  his  discontent.  Adams  and  Jefferson  were 
quite  as  inappropriately  brought  together  in  executive  office  as 
were  Jefferson  and  Hamilton  in  the  cabinet  of  Washington. 

Abigail  Adams,  the  President's  wife,  was  undoubtedly  the 
most  conspicuous  American  woman  of  her  day,  whether  by  posi 
tion  or  by  character.  When  writing  to  her  husband  she  often 
signed  herself  "  Portia,"  in  accordance  with  a  stately  and  per 
haps  rather  high-flown  habit  of  the  period ;  and  she  certainly 
showed  qualities  which  would  have  done  honor  to  either  the 
Roman  or  Shakespearian  heroine  of  that  name.  In  her  letters 
we  see  her  thoroughly  revealed.  While  the  battle  of  Bunker 
Hill  was  in  progress,  she  wrote  that  it  was  "dreadful  but  glori 
ous  ;"  and  in  the  depression  of  the  battle  of  Long  Island  she 
said,  "  If  all  America  is  to  be  ruined  and  undone  by  a  pack  of 
cowards  and  knaves,  I  wish  to  know  it,"  and  added,  "  Don't  you 
know  me  better  than  to  think  me  a  coward  ?"  When,  first 
among  American  women,  she  represented  her  nation  at  the 
court  of  St.  James,  she  met  with  equal  pride  the  contemptuous 
demeanor  of  Queen  Charlotte ;  and  when  her  husband  was 
chosen  President,  she  wrote  to  him,  "  My  feelings  are  not  those 
of  pride  or  ostentation  upon  the  occasion ;  they  are  solemnized 
by  a  sense  of  the  obligations,  the  important  truths  and  numer 
ous  duties,  connected  with  it."  When  finally,  after  four  years, 
he  failed  of  re-election,  she  wrote  to  her  son :  "  The  consequence 
to  us  is  personally  that  we  retire  from  public  life.  For  myself 
and  family  I  have  few  regrets.  ...  If  I  did  not  rise  with  dignity, 
I  can  at  least  fall  with  ease."  This  was  Abigail  Adams.  In 
person  she  was  distinguished  and  noble  rather  than  beautiful, 
yet  it  is  satisfactory  to  know  that  when  she  was  first  presented 
at  the  British  court  she  wore  a  white  lutestring,  trimmed  with 


340  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES, 

white  crape,  festooned  with  lilac  ribbon  and  mock  point-lace  over 
a  hoop  of  enormous  extent,  with  a  narrow  train  three  yards  long, 
looped  up  by  a  ribbon.  She  wore  treble  lace  ruffles,  a  dress  cap 
with  long  lace  lappets,  and  two  w7hite  plumes,  these  last  doubt 
less  soaring  straight  into  the  air  above  her  head  in  the  extraor 
dinary  style  familiar  to  us  in  Gillray's  caricatures  of  that  period. 

It  was  in  those  days  no  very  agreeable  task  to  be  the  wife  of 
the  President.  Mrs.  Adams  has  left  on  record  a  graphic  sketch 
of  the  White  House,  \vhere  she  presided  for  three  months.  The 
change  in  the  seat  of  government  had  been  decided  upon  for 
twelve  years,  yet  the  building  was  still  a  vast  unfinished  barrack, 
with  few  rooms  plastered,  no  main  stairway,  not  a  bell  within, 
not  a  fence  without ;  it  \vas  distressingly  cold  in  winter,  while 
the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  United  States  could  not  obtain  for 
love  or  money  a  man  to  cut  wood  for  him  in  the  forests  which 
then  surrounded  Washington.  From  Washington  to  Baltimore 
extended  an  almost  unbroken  growth  of  timber,  varied  only  by 
some  small  and  windowless  huts.  There  could  as  yet  be  in 
Washington  no  such  varied  companionship  as  had  given  attrac 
tion  to  the  seat  of  government  at  New  York  and  then  at  Phila 
delphia  ;  yet  at  Georgetown  there  was  a  society  which  called 
itself  eminently  polite,  and  Mrs.  Adams  records  that  she  re 
turned  fifteen  calls  in  a  single  day. 

Mr.  Adams  took  his  cabinet  from  his  predecessor ;  it  was  not 
a  strong  one,  and  it  was  devoted  to  Hamilton,  between  whom 
and  the  new  President  there  was  soon  a  divergence,  Hamilton 
being  fond  of  power,  and  Adams  having  a  laudable  purpose  to 
command  his  own  ship.  The  figure  of  speech  is  appropriate, 
for  he  plunged  into  a  sea  of  troubles,  mainly  created  by  the  un 
reasonable  demands  of  the  French  government.  The  French 
"  Directory,"  enraged  especially  by  Jay's  treaty  with  England, 
got  rid  of  one  American  minister  by  remonstrance,  and  drove 
out  another  with  contempt.  When  Mr.  Adams  sent  three  spe 
cial  envoys,  they  were  expected  to  undertake  the  most  delicate 


THE  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS. 


341 


negotiations  with  certain  semi-official  persons  designated  in 
their  correspondence  only  by  the  letters  X,  Y,  Z.  The  plan  of 
this  covert  intercourse  came  through  the  private  secretary  of 


ABIGAIL    ADAMS. 


M.  de  Talleyrand,  then  French  Minister  for  Foreign  Affairs ; 
and  the  impudence  of  these  three  letters  of  the  alphabet  went  so 
far  as  to  propose  a  bribe  of  1,200,000  francs  (some  $220,000)  to 
be  paid  over  to  this  minister.  "  You  must  pay  money,  a  great 


342  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

deal  of  money,"  remarked  Monsieur  Y  (//  faut  de  rargent,  beau- 
coup  de  r argent).  The  secret  of  these  names  was  kept,  but  the 
diplomatic  correspondence  was  made  public,  and  created  much 
wrath  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  America.  Moreover,  American 
vessels  were  constantly  attacked  by  France,  and  yet  Congress 
refused  to  arm  its  own  ships.  At  last  the  insults  passed  beyond 
bearing,  and  it  was  at  this  time  that  "  Millions  for  defence,  not 
one  cent  for  tribute,"  first  became  a  proverbial  phrase,  having 
been  originally  used  by  Charles  C.  Pinckney,  who,  after  having 
been  expelled  from  France,  was  sent  back  again  as  one  of  the 
three  envoys. 

Then,  with  tardy  decision,  the  Republicans  yielded  to  the 
necessity  of  action,  and  the  Federal  party  took  the  lead.  War 
was  not  formally  proclaimed,  but  treaties  with  France  were  de 
clared  to  be  no  longer  binding.  An  army  was  ordered  to  be 
created,  with  Washington  as  Lieutenant-general  and  Hamilton 
as  second  in  command ;  and  the  President  was  authorized  to 
appoint  a  Secretary  of  the  Navy  and  to  build  twelve  new  ships- 
of-war.  Before  these  were  ready,  naval  hostilities  had  actually 
begun ;  and  Commodore  Truxton,  in  the  U.  S.  frigate  Constel 
lation,  captured  a  French  frigate  in  West  Indian  waters  (Feb.  9, 
1799),  and  afterwards  silenced  another,  which  however  escaped. 
Great  was  the  excitement  over  these  early  naval  successes  of  the 
young  nation.  Merchant-ships  were  authorized  to  arm  them 
selves,  and  some  three  hundred  acted  upon  this  authority.  It 
is  to  this  period,  and  not  as  is  commonly  supposed  to  that  of 
the  Revolution,  that  Robert  Treat  Paine's  song  "  Adams  and 
Liberty  "  belongs.  The  result  of  it  all  was  that  France  yielded. 
Talleyrand,  the  very  minister  who  had  dictated  the  insults,  now 
disavowed  them,  and  pledged  his  government  to  receive  any 
minister  the  United  States  might  send.  The  President,  in  the 
most  eminently  courageous  act  of  his  life,  took  the  responsibil 
ity  of  again  sending  ambassadors ;  and  did  this  without  even 
consulting  his  cabinet,  which  would,  as  he  well  knew,  oppose  it. 


THE  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  343 

They  were  at  once  received,  and  all  danger  of  war  with  France 
was  at  an  end. 

This  bold  stroke  separated  the  President  permanently  from 
at  least  half  of  his  own  party,  since  the  Federalists  did  not  wish 
for  peace  with  France.  His  course  would  have  given  him  a 
corresponding  increase  of  favor  from  the  other  side,  but  for  the 
great  mistake  the  Federalists  had  made  in  passing  certain  laws, 
called  the  "  Alien  "  law  and  the  "  Sedition  "  law ;  the  first  of 
these  giving  the  President  power  to  order  any  dangerous  alien 
out  of  the  country,  and  the  second  making  it  a  penal  offence 
to  write  anything  false,  scandalous,  or  malicious  against  the 
President  or  Congress.  It  was  held,  most  justly,  that  this  last 
law  was  directly  opposed  to  the  Constitution,  which  had  been 
so  amended  as  to  guarantee  freedom  to  the  press.  Looked  at 
from  this  distance,  it  seems  to  have  been  one  of  those  measures 
which  inevitably  destroy  a  party ;  and  the  Federalists  certainly 
committed  suicide  when  they  passed  it.  It  is  clear  that  if  it 
had  stood,  their  own  ablest  newspapers  four  years  after — Den- 
nie's  Portfolio,  for  instance — might  have  seen  their  proprietors 
imprisoned.  These  laws  led  to  action  almost  equally  extreme 
on  the  other  side ;  the  Republicans,  powerless  in  Congress,  fell 
back  on  their  State  Legislatures,  and  Kentucky  and  Virginia 
passed  resolutions — drafted  respectively  by  Jefferson  and  Madi 
son  —  which  wrent  so  near  secession  as  to  be  quoted  on  that 
side  at  a  later  day.  Kentucky  distinctly  resolved,  in  1 799,  that 
any  State  might  rightfully  nullify  any  act  of  Congress  which 
it  regarded  as  unconstitutional. 

Thus  the  bitterness  grew  worse  and  worse,  till  Adams  dis 
missed  from  his  cabinet  the  friends  of  Hamilton,  calling  them  a 
"  British  faction."  Hamilton,  in  turn,  intrigued  against  Adams, 
and  in  1800  the  vote  of  South  Carolina  turned  the  scale  in 
favor  of  the  Republican  electors.  Jefferson  and  Burr,  the  two 
Republican  nominees,  had  an  equal  number  of  votes  —  73; 
Adams  having  65,  Pinckney  64,  and  Jay  i.  There  was  no 


344  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

choice,  and  the  decision  then  went  to  the  House  of  Representa 
tives,  which  took  six  days  to  make  its  election,  during  which 
time  the  Constitution  underwent  such  a  party  strain  as  ha* 
only  once  been  equalled  since  that  period.  It  ended  in  the 
election  of  Thomas  Jefferson  as  President,  and  of  Aaron  Burr 
as  Vice-president,  and  on  March  4,  1801,  they  were  sworn  into 
office. 

On  the  very  day  of  his  inauguration  Jefferson  took  a  step 
towards  what  he  called  simplicity,  and  what  his  opponents 
thought  vulgarity.  We  know  through  an  English  traveller, 
John  Davis,  that,  instead  of  driving  with  a  coach-and-six  to  be 
inaugurated,  the  new  President  rode  on  horseback  to  the  Capi 
tol,  without  even  a  servant,  tied  his  horse  to  the  fence,  and 
walked  in.  It  was  partly  accidental — he  was,  at  any  rate,  nego 
tiating  for  a  four-horse  equipage  in  Virginia — but  it  was  a  char 
acteristic  accident.  In  the  same  way,  thenceforward,  instead 
of  going  with  a  state  procession,  at  tire  opening  of  each  Con 
gress,  to  read  his  Message  in  person,  as  had  hitherto  been  the 
•  custom,  he  sent  it  in  writing.  He  would  have  no  especial 
levees  nor  invited  guests,  but  was  accessible  to  any  one  at  any 
hour.  He  was  so  unwilling  to  have  his  birthday  celebrated 
that  he  concealed  it  as  much  as  possible.  These  ways  were 
criticised  as  those  of  a  demagogue.  The  President  was  re 
proached  with  a  desire  to  conciliate  the  mob,  or,  as  it  was  then 
sometimes  called  —  as,  for  instance,  in  Mrs.  Adams's  letters — 
the  "mobility."  His  reason  for  sending  a  Message,  according 
to  that  stout  Federalist  William  Sullivan,  was  because  a  Speech 
could  be  answered,  and  a  Message  could  not;  although  Sullivan 
asserts,  in  almost  the  next  sentence,  that  Congress  was  utterly 
subservient  to  him,  and  it  could  therefore  have  made  no  differ 
ence.  The  discontinuance  of  formal  levees  is  called  by  Sulli 
van  "  the  abolition  of  all  official  dignity,"  and  "  descending  to  the 
lowest  level." 

Dennie's  Portfolio,   the    best    newspaper   that   had  yet  ap 


THOMAS    JEFFERSON. 
.Engraved  by  G.  Kruell,  from  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  owned  by  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge,  Esq.,  Boston.] 


•F  TMM 

UNIVERSITY 


THE.  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  347 

peared  in  the  United  States,  contained,  August  18,  1804,  among 
eulogies  of  the  poems  of  Burns,  and  burlesques  upon  the  early 
lyrical  effusions  of  Wordsworth,  an  imaginary  diary,  supposed 
to  have  been  picked  up  near  the  White  House  in  the  previous 
February.  In  this  the  President  was  made  to  say:  "Ordered 
my  horse — never  ride  with  a  servant — looks  proud — mob  doesn't 
like  it  —  must  gull  the  boobies.  Adams  wouldn't  bend  so — 
would  rather  lose  his  place — knew  nothing  of  the  world."  In 
another  place  he  describes  himself  as  meeting  a  countryman 
who  took  him  for  a  Virginia  overseer,  and  who  talked  politics. 
The  countryman  asked  him  to  name  one  man  of  real  character 
in  the  Democratic  party.  The  President,  after  some  stammer 
ing,  suggested  Jefferson,  on  which  the  countryman  burst  into 
a  broad  laugh,  and  asked  him  to  enumerate  his  virtues — would 
he  begin  with  his  religion,  chastity,  courage,  or  honesty? — on 
which  the  President  indignantly  rode  away.  "  Had  he  been  as 
little  as  Sammy  H.  Smith,"  he  adds,  "  I  think  I  should  have 
struck  him."  Ever  since  Jefferson's  career  as  Governor  of  Vir 
ginia,  the  charge  of  personal  cowardice  had  been  unreasonably 
familiar. 

The  fictitious  diary  also  contains  some  indecorous  references 
to  a  certain  "black  Sally,"  a  real  or  imaginary  personage  of 
that  day  whose  companionship  was  thought  discreditable  to  the 
President ;  also  to  the  undoubted  personal  slovenliness  of  the 
Chief  Magistrate — a  point  in  which  he  showed  an  almost  stud 
ied  antagonism  to  the  scrupulous  proprieties  of  Washington. 
When  Mr.  Merry,  the  newly  appointed  British  ambassador,  went 
in  official  costume  to  be  presented  to  the  President  at  an  hour 
previously  appointed,  he  found  himself,  by  his  own  narrative, 
"introduced  to  a  man  as  the  President  of  the  United  States, 
not  merely  in  an  undress,  but  actually  standing  in  slippers  down 
at  the  heels,  and  both  pantaloons,  coat,  and  underclothes  indic 
ative  of  utter  slovenliness  and  indifference  to  appearance,  and 
in  a  state  of  negligence  actually  studied."  The  minister  went 


348  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

away  with  the  very  natural  conviction  that  the  whole  scene  w7as 
prepared  and  intended  as  an  insult,  not  to  himself,  but  to  the 
sovereign  whom  he  represented. 

Mr.  Merry's  inference  was  probably  quite  unjust.  A  man 
may  be  habitually  careless  about  his  costume  without  meaning 
any  harm  by  it;  and  the  pre-eminent  demagogue  of. the  French 
Revolution,  Robespierre,  always  appeared  exquisitely  dressed, 
and  wore  a  fresh  bouquet  every  day.  Yet  all  these  points  of 
costume  or  propriety  were  then  far  weightier  matters  than  we 
can  now  conceive.  The  habits  of  the  last  century  in  respect  to 
decorum  were  just  receding;  men  were — for  better  or  worse — 
ceasing  to  occupy  themselves  about  personal  externals,  and  the 
customary  suit  of  solemn  black  was  only  just  coming  into  vogue. 
The  old  regime  was  dying,  and  its  disappearance  was  as  con 
spicuous  in  England  as  in  France,  in  America  as  in  England. 
This  is  easily  illustrated. 

If  we  were  to  read  in  some  old  collection  of  faded  letters  a 
woman's  animated  description  of  a  country  visit  paid  to  one 
who  seemed  the  counterpart  of  Addison's  Sir  Roger  de  Cover- 
ley,  we  should  naturally  assume  that  the  date  and  address  of 
the  letter  must  be  very  far  away  in  space  and  time.  Suppose 
that  the  narrator  should  tell  us  of  a  fine  country-house  sur 
rounded  by  lofty  elms  forming  two  avenues,  the  one  leading  to 
the  high-road,  the  other  to  the  village  church.  There  are  family 
portraits  in  the  hall,  a  bookcase  containing  the  first  edition  of 
the  Spectator,  and  a  buffet  of  old  plate  and  rare  china.  The 
guest  remains  over  Sunday,  and  her  host,  wearing  wig  and 
cocked  hat  and  red  cloak,  escorts  her  down  the  avenue  of  elms 
through  the  rural  church-yard  to  the  village  church.  At  every 
step  they  pass  villagers  who  make  profound  obeisance,  and  at 
the  conclusion  of  the  service  the  whole  congregation  remains 
standing  until  this  ancient  gentleman  and  his  friends  have 
passed  down  the  broad  aisle.  Who  would  not  fancy  this  a 
scene  from  some  English  hamlet  in  the  days  of  Queen  Anne  ? 


THE  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  349 

Yet  it  all  took  place  in  the  present  century,  and  in  the  quiet 
village  of  Harvard,  Massachusetts,  little  more  than  thirty  miles 
from  Boston,  and  now  only  noted  as  the  abode  of  a  little  Shaker 
community,  and  the  scene  of  Howelfs's  "  Undiscovered  Country." 
The  narrator  was  the  late  Mrs.  Josiah  Ouincy,  and  her  host  was 
Henry  Bromfield,  elder  brother  of  the  well-known  benefactor  of 
the  Boston  Athenaeum.  He  was  simply  a  "survival"  of  the  old 
way  of  living.  He  spoke  of  State  Street  as  King  Street,  and 
Summer  Street  as  Seven-star  Lane,  and  his  dress  and  manners 
were  like  his  phrases.  Such  survivals  were  still  to  be  found, 
here  and  there  all  over  the  country,  at  the  precise  time  when 
Jefferson  became  President,  and  shocked  Mr.  Merry  with  his 
morning  slippers,  and  Mr.  Sullivan  by  opening  his  doors  to  all 
the  world. 

For  the  rest,  Jefferson's  way  of  living  in  Washington  ex 
hibited  a  profuse  and  rather  slovenly  hospitality,  which  at  last 
left  him  deeply  in  debt.  He  kept  open  house,  had  eleven  serv 
ants  (slaves)  from  his  plantation,  besides  a  French  cook  and 
steward  and  an  Irish  coachman.  His  long  dining-room  was 
crowded  every  day,  according  to  one  witness,  who  tested  its 
hospitality  for  sixteen  days  in  succession ;  it  was  essentially  a 
bachelor  establishment,  he  being  then  a  widower,  and  we  hear 
little  of  ladies  among  its  visitors.  There  was  no  etiquette  at 
these  great  dinners ;  they  sat  down  at  four  and  talked  till  mid 
night.  The  city  of  Washington  was  still  a  frontier  settlement, 
in  that  phase  of  those  outposts  when  they  consist  of  many 
small  cabins  and  one  hotel  at  which  everybody  meets.  The 
White  House  was  the  hotel ;  there  was  no  "  society  "  anywhere 
else,  because  no  other  dwelling  had  a  drawing-room  large 
enough  to  receive  it.  Pennsylvania  Avenue  was  still  an  abyss 
of  yellow  mud,  on  which  nobody  could  walk,  and  where  car 
riages  were  bemired.  Gouverneur  Morris,  of  New  York,  de 
scribed  Washington  as  the  best  city  in  the  world  for  a  future 
residence.  "  We  want  nothing  here,"  he  said,  "  but  houses, 


350  HISTORY  OF    THE  UNITED   STATES. 

cellars,  kitchens,  well-informed  men,  amiable  women,  and   other 
little  trifles  of  this  kind,  to  make  our  city  perfect." 

Besides  new  manners,  the  new  President  urged  new  meas 
ures  ;  he  would  pay  off  the  public  debt,  which  was  very  well, 
though  the  main  instrument  by  which  it  was  to  be  paid  was  the 
Treasury  system  created  by  Hamilton.  But  to  aid  in  doing 
this  he  would  reduce  the  army  and  navy  to  their  lowest  point, 
which  was  not  so  well,  although  he  covered  this  reduction  in 
the  case  of  the  army  by  calling  it  —  in  a  letter  to  Nathaniel 
Macon — "  a  chaste  reformation."  He  pardoned  those  convicted 
under  the  Alien  and  Sedition  laws,  and  he  procured  the  re 
moval  of  those  officers  appointed  by  President  Adams  at  the 
last  moment,  and  called  "  Midnight  Judges,"  this  being  accom 
plished  by  a  repeal  of  the  law  creating  them.  This  repeal  was 
an  act  which  seemed  to  the  Federalists  unconstitutional,  and  its 
passage  was  their  last  great  defeat.  Under  Jefferson's  leader 
ship  the  period  of  fourteen  years  of  residence  necessary  for  nat 
uralization  was  reduced  to  five  years.  He  sent  Lewis  and 
Clark  to  penetrate  the  vast  regions  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and 
encouraged  Astor  to  found  a  settlement  upon  the  Pacific  coast. 
The  Constitution  was  so  amended  as  to  provide  for  the  Presi 
dential  election  in  its  present  form.  The  President's  hostility 
could  not  touch  the  Bank  of  the  United  States,  as  established 
by  Hamilton,  for  it  was  to  exist  by  its  charter  till  1811;  the 
excise  law  was  early  discontinued;  the  tariff  question  had  not 
yet  become  serious,  the  tendency  being,  however,  to  an  increase 
of  duties.  Slavery  was  occasionally  discussed  by  pamphleteers. 
The  officials  of  the  civil  service  had  not  grown  to  be  a  vast 
army:  instead  of  fifty  thousand,  there  were  then  but  five  thou 
sand,  and  of  those  Jefferson  removed  but  thirty-nine.  Yet  even 
this  mild  degree  of  personal  interference  was  severely  criticised, 
for  party  bitterness  had  not  abated.  Violent  squibs  and  hand 
bills  were  still  published ;  peaceful  villages  were  divided  against 
themselves.  The  late  Miss  Catharine  Sedsfwick,  whose  father 


THE  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS. 


351 


WASHINGTON    IN    iSoo. 


was  Speaker  of  the  House  of  Representatives,  says  that  in  a 
New  England  town,  where  she  lived  in  childhood,  the  gentry 
who  resided  at  one  end  were  mainly  Federalists,  and  the  poorer 
citizens  at  the  other  end  were  Democrats.  The  travelling  agent 
for  the  exchange  of  political  knowledge  was  a  certain  aged 
horse,  past  service,  and  turned  out  to  graze  in  the  village  street. 
He  would  be  seen  peacefully  pacing  one  way  in  the  morning, 
his  sides  plastered  with  Jeffersonian  squibs,  and  he  would  return 
at  night  with  these  effaced  by  Federalist  manifestoes. 

Handbills  and  caricatures  have  alike  disappeared ;  but  one 
of  the  best  memorials  of  the  Jeffersonian  side  of  the  controversy 
is  to  be  found  in  a  very  spicy  correspondence  carried  on  in 
1807  between  John  Adams  and  Mercy  Warren,  and  first  pub 
lished  in  the  centennial  volume  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.  Mercy  Warren  was  a  woman  of  rare  ability  and  char- 


352  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

acter,  the  sister  of  James  Otis,  the  wife  of  General  James  War 
ren,  and  the  author  of  a  history  of  the  American  Revolution. 
John  Adams,  reading  this  book  after  his  retirement  from  office, 
took  offence  at  certain  phrases,  and  corresponded  with  her  at 
great  length  about  them,  showing  in  advancing  years  an  un- 
diminished  keenness  of  mind  and  only  an  increase  of  touchy 
egotism.  He  makes  it,  for  instance,  a  subject  of  sincere  indig 
nation  when  the  lady  in  one  case  speaks  of  Franklin  and 
Adams  instead  of  Adams  and  Franklin.  Mrs.  Warren,  on  her 
side,  shows  to  the  greatest  advantage,  keeps  her  temper,  and 
gives  some  keen  home-thrusts.  She  makes  it  clear,  in  this  cor 
respondence,  how  strongly  and  indeed  justly  a  portion  of  the 
most  intelligent  people  of  Mr.  Adams's  own  State  dreaded  what 
she  calls  his  "  marked  and  uniform  preference  to  monarchic 
usages;"  she  brings  him  to  the  admission  that  he  hates  "demo 
cratic  "  government,  and  likes  better  such  republicanism  as  that 
of  Holland — a  nation  which,  as  he  himself  says,  "  has  no  idea  of 
any  republic  but  an  aristocracy" — and  that  he  counts  even  Eng 
land  a  republic,  since  a  republic  is  merely  "  a  government  of 
more  than  one."  She  even  quotes  against  him  his  own  \vords, 
uttered  in  moments  of  excited  impulse,  recognizing  monarchy 
as  the  probable  destiny  of  the  United  States.  But  the  most 
striking  fact,  after  all,  is  that  she,  a  refined  and  cultivated  wom 
an,  accustomed  to  the  best  New  England  society  of  her  time, 
is  found  dissenting  wholly  from  the  Federalist  view  of  Jeffer 
son.  "  I  never  knew,"  she  bravely  says,  in  answer  to  a  sneer 
from  Mr.  Adams,  "that  'my  philosophical  friend'  Mr.  Jefferson 
was  afraid  to  do  his  duty  in  any  instance.  But  this  I  know — 
he  has  dared  to  do  many  things  for  his  country  for  which  pos 
terity  will  probably  bless  his  memory ;  and  I  hope  he  will  yet, 
by  his  wisdom,  justice,  moderation,  and  energy,  long  continue 
the  blessings  of  peace  in  our  country,  and  strengthen  the  repub 
lican  system  to  which  he  has  uniformly  adhered."  Such  a  trib 
ute  from  a  woman  like  Mercy  Warren — a  woman  then  nearly 


THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  353 

eighty   years    old,  but   still    showing    unimpaired   those    mental 
powers  of  which  John  Adams  had  before  spoken  in  terms  of 


MERCY    WARREN. 


almost  extravagant  praise — is  entitled  to  count  for  something 
against  the  bitterness  of  contemporary  politicians. 

There  were  now  sixteen  States,  Vermont  (1791),  Kentucky 

23 


354  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

(1792),  Tennessee  (1796),  having  been  added  to  the  original 
thirteen.  With  these  was  soon  associated  Ohio  (1802),  and  then 
no  other  was  added  until  a  vast  acquisition  of  territory  made  it 
necessary.  This  was  the  province  of  Louisiana,  which  was  ob 
tained  by  Jefferson  through  one  of  those  strokes  of  glaring  in 
consistency  which  his  opponents  called  trick,  and  his  admirers 
statesmanship.  Monroe  had  been  sent  to  France  to  buy  the 
Floridas  and  the  island  of  New  Orleans,  but  he  went  beyond 
his  instructions,  and  paid  fifteen  millions  (April  30,  1803)  for  all 
the  vast  region  then  called  Louisiana,  comprising  the  island  of 
New  Orleans  and  all  the  continent  west  of  the  Mississippi  Riv 
er  between  the  British  possessions  and  what  was  then  Mexico. 
The  territory  thus  obtained  was  afterwards  assumed  to  have 
extended  to  the  Pacific  Ocean,  although  this  was  a  claim  sub 
ject  to  much  doubt.  It  \vas  a  most  important  acquisition,  which 
more  than  doubled  the  original  area  of  the  United  States,  and 
saved  it  from  being  hemmed  in  between  English  Canada  and 
French  Florida.  But  here  was  a  test  of  those  rigid  doctrines 
with  which  Jefferson  was  identified  —  of  State  rights  and  the 
strict  construction  of  the  Constitution.  If  the  resolutions  which 
he  had  drawn  up  for  the  State  of  Kentucky  were  true,  then  the 
purchase  of  Louisiana  was  wrong,  for  it  was  the  exercise  of  a 
power  not  given  by  the  Constitution,  and  it  strengthened  the 
nation  enormously  at  the  expense  of  the  original  States.  Jeffer 
son  sustained  it  simply  on  the  ground  that  the  people  needed 
it,  and  if  they  did  so,  a  constitutional  amendment  would  set  all 
right.  In  other  words,  he  violated  what  he  himself  had  declared 
to  be  law,  and  suggested  that  a  new  law  be  passed  to  confirm 
his  action.  The  new  law — in  the  shape  of  an  amendment  to 
the  Constitution — was  in  fact  prepared,  biit  never  even  offered, 
inasmuch  as  the  popular  voice  ratified  the  purchase.  Thus  a 
precedent  was  created — that  of  the  annexation  of  new  territory 
— which  was  in  accordance  with  Jefferson's  immediate  policy, 
but  was  fatal  to  his  principles.  The  acquisition  of  Louisiana 


THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  355 

aided  greatly  in  bringing  about  just  that  which  he  had  opposed, 
the  subordination  of  the  States  to  the  nation. 

These  things  would  have  made  enough  of  party  bitterness, 
but  what  added  to  it  was  that  parties  still  turned  largely  on 
European  politics,  and  every  fresh  foreign  newspaper  added  to 
the  democratic  flame.  It  was  now  France  with  which  a  treaty 
was  to  be  made,  and  the  debate  ran  almost  as  high  as  when  Jay 
had  negotiated  with  England,  only  that  the  arguments  of  the 
disputants  were  now  reversed.  But  here,  as  in  everything  dur 
ing  Jefferson's  earlier  period,  success  awaited  him.  The  French 
treaty  was  at  length  ratified ;  the  Federalists  were  defeated  all 
along  the  line.  At  the  end  of  Jefferson's  first  term  they  were 
overwhelmingly  beaten  in  the  Presidential  election,  carrying 
only  Connecticut  and  Delaware,  with  two  electors  in  Maryland 
— 14  electoral  votes  in  all.  Their  unsuccessful  candidates  were 
Charles  C.  Pinckney  and  Rufus  King;  the  successful  ones  were 
Thomas  Jefferson,  of  Virginia,  and  George  Clinton,  of  New 
York,  both  having  162  electoral  votes,  and  Clinton  taking  the 
place  of  Aaron  Burr,  the  most  brilliant  man  of  his  time,  who 
had  now  fallen  from  all  public  respect  by  his  way  of  life,  had 
made  himself  odious  by  shooting  Hamilton  in  a  duel,  and  was 
destined  to  come  near  conviction  for  treason  through  his  project 
of  setting  up  a  separate  government  at  the  South-west.  The 
new  President  and  Vice-president  were  sworn  into  office  March 
4,  1805.  They  had  behind  them  a  strong  majority  in  each 
House  of  Congress,  and  henceforth  the  Federalist  party  was 
only  a  minority,  able  and  powerful,  but  destined  to  death. 

Under  the  new  administration  the  controlling  effect  of  Eu 
ropean  strife  was  more  and  more  felt  in  American  affairs. 
Napoleon's  "  Decrees  "  and  the  British  "  Orders  in  Council " 
were  equally  disastrous  to  the  commerce  of  the  United  States ; 
and  both  nations  claimed  the  right  to  take  seamen  out  of 
United  States  vessels.  "  England,"  said  Jefferson,  "  seems  to 
have  become  a  den  of  pirates,  and  France  a  den  of  thieves." 


356  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

There  was  trouble  with  Spain  also,  backed  by  France,  about  the 
eastern  boundaries  of  Louisiana.  There  was  renewed  demand 
for  a  navy,  but  the  President  would  only  consent  to  the  build 
ing  of  certain  little  gun-boats,  much  laughed  at  then  and  ever 
since.  They  were  to  cost  less  than  ten  thousand  dollars  apiece, 
were  to  be  kept  on  land  under  cover,  and  to  be  launched  when 
ever  they  were  needed,  like  the  boats  of-  our  life-saving  service ; 
with  these  the  fleets  which  had  -fought  under  Nelson  were  to 
be  resisted.  Yet  a  merely  commercial  retaliation  was  favored 
by  Jefferson ;  and  an  act  was  passed  to  punish  England  by 
the  prohibition  of  certain  English  goods.  A  treaty  with  that 
nation  was  made,  but  was  rejected  by  the  President,  and  all 
tended  to  increase  the  bitterness  of  feeling  between  the  two 
nations.  In  June,  1807,  the  British  frigate  Leopard  took  four 
seamen  by  force  from  the  United  States  frigate  Chesapeake. 
"  Never  since  the  battle  of  Lexington,"  said  Jefferson,  "  have  I 
seen  this  country  in  such  a  state  of  exasperation  as  at  present." 
Then  came  that  great  political  convulsion,  the  Embargo  Act 
(December  22,  1807),  prohibiting  all  commerce  with  all  foreign 
countries,  and  thus  instantly  crushing  all  foreign  trade  which 
the  two  great  European  contestants  had  left.  It  kindled  all  the 
fires  of  hostility  between  the  Federalists  and  Republicans — who 
had  now  fairly  accepted  the  name  of  Democrats,  a  name  bor 
rowed  from  France,  and  fairly  forced  on  them  by  their  oppo 
nents.  The  act  brought  ruin  to  so  many  households  that  it 
might  well  be  at  least  doubted  whether  it  brought  good  to  any. 
The  very  children  of  New  England  rose  up  against  it,  in  the 
person  of  Bryant,  who,  when  a  boy  of  thirteen,  wrote  in  opposi 
tion  to  it  his  first  elaborate  lay.  It  was  believed  by  the  Federal 
ists  to  be  aimed  expressly  at  the  Eastern  States,  yet  John  Quin- 
cy  Adams,  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  supported  it,  and  then 
resigned,  his  course  being  disapproved  by  his  Legislature.  He 
it  was,  however,  who  informed  the  President  at  last  that  the  em 
bargo  could  be  endured  no  longer,  and  got  it  modified,  in  1809, 


THE  EARL  Y  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS. 


357 


so  as   to  apply  only  to  England   and  France.      Jefferson   con 
sented  reluctantly  even  to  this  degree  of  pressure,  but  he  wrote, 


AARON    BURR. 


looking  back  upon  the  affair  in  1816,  "  I  felt  the  foundations  of 
the  government  shaken  under  my  feet  by  the  New  England 
township ;"  and  he  always  urged  thenceforward  that  the  town 

V 


358  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

system  organized  the  voice  of  the  people  in  a  way  with  which 
no  unwieldy  county  organization,  such  as  prevailed  at  the  South, 
could  compete.  Yet  all  but  the  commercial  States  sustained 
the  embargo,  and  the  Federalist  party  was  left  a  broken  and 
hopeless  minority.  Jefferson  remained  strong  in  popularity. 
His.  second  term  had  secured  a  triumphant  end  to  the  long 
contest  with  Tripoli,  whose  insolent  claims  were  checked  by 
the  successes  of  Decatur,  and  by  a  treaty  (1805).  An  act  had 
also  been  passed  forever  prohibiting  the  African  slave-trade 
after  January  i,  1808.  Jefferson  was  urged  to  become  for  a 
third  time  a  candidate  for  the  Presidency,  but  wisely  declined 
in  favor  of  his  friend  Madison.  In  the  election  of  1808, 
James  Madison,  of  Virginia,  had  122  votes,  C.  C.  Pinckney  47, 
and  George  Clinton  6,  Mr.  Madison  being  therefore  elected ; 
while  on  the  vote  for  Vice-president  George  Clinton  had  a 
smaller  majority.  The  third  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  United 
States  thus  retired  to  private  life  after  a  career  which  has  in 
fluenced  American  institutions  to  this  day  more  profoundly 
than  that  of  any  other  President. 

Jefferson  was  a  man  full  of  thoughts  and  of  studious  pur 
poses  ;  trustful  of  the  people,  distrustful  of  the  few ;  a  generous 
friend,  but  a  vehement  and  unscrupulous  foe  ;  not  so  much 
deliberately  false  as  without  a  clear  sense  of  truth ;  courageous 
for  peace,  but  shrinking  and  vacillating  in  view  of  war;  ignorant 
of  his  own  limitations;  as  self-confident  in  financial  and  com 
mercial  matters,  of  which  he  knew  little,  as  in  respect  to  the 
principles  of  republican  government,  about  which  he  showed 
more  foresight  than  any  man  of  his  time.  He  may  have  under 
rated  the  dangers  to  which  the  nation  might  be  exposed  from 
ignorance  and  vice,  but  he  never  yielded,  on  the  other  hand,  to 
the  cowardice  of  culture ;  he  never  relaxed  his  faith  in  the  per 
manence  of  popular  government  or  in  the  high  destiny  of  man. 

Meanwhile  John  Adams,  on  his  farm  in  Quincy,  had  been 
superintending  his  haymakers  with  something  as  near  to  peace 


THE  EARLY  AMERICAN  PRESIDENTS.  359 

of  mind  as  a  deposed  President  can  be  expected  to  attain.  He 
was  not  a  person  of  eminent  humility,  nor  is  it  usually  agreeable 
to  a  public  man  when  his  correspondence  ceases  to  be  counted 
by  the  thousand,  and  his  letters  shrink  to  two  a  week.  His 
high-minded  wife,  more  cordially  accepting  the  situation,  wrote 
with  sincere  satisfaction  of  skimming  milk  in  her  dairy  at  five 
o'clock  in  the  morning.  Each  had  perhaps  something  to  say, 
when  Jefferson  was  mentioned,  about  "  Coesar  with  a  Senate  at 
his  heels,"  but  it  did  not  prevent  the  old  friendship  with  Ceesar 
from  reviving  in  later  life.  Jefferson  had  written  to  Washing 
ton  long  before,  that  even  Adams's  "  apostasy  to  hereditary 
monarchy  and  nobility "  had  not  alienated  them  ;  Adams  saw 
in  Jefferson,  as  time  went  on,  the  friend  and  even  political  ad 
viser  of  his  own  son.  Old  antagonisms  faded ;  old  associations 
grew  stronger;  and  the  two  aged  men  floated  on,  like  two  ships 
becalmed  at  nightfall,  that  drift  together  into  port,  and  cast 
anchor  side  by  side. 


XV. 

THE   SECOND    WAR   FOR   INDEPENDENCE. 

JEFFERSON'S  period  of  office  lasted  technically  for  eight 
years,  but  it  is  not  wholly  incorrect  to  estimate,  as  Mr. 
Parton  suggests,  that  it  endured  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a 
century.  Madison's  and  Monroe's  administrations  were  but  the 
continuation  of  it.  The  fourth  and  fifth  Presidents  had,  indeed, 
so  much  in  common  that  it  was  about  an  even  chance  which 
should  take  the  Presidency  first.  Both  had  long  been  friends 
of  Jefferson  ;  both  had  something  to  do  with  reconciling  him  to 
the  United  States  Constitution,  which  he  had  at  first  opposed. 
He  himself  would  have  rather  preferred  Monroe  for  his  imme 
diate  successor,  but  the  Legislature  of  Virginia  pronounced  in 
favor  of  Madison,  who,  like  the  two  others,  was  a  native  of  that 
then  powerful  State.  It  really  made  little  difference  which  pre 
ceded.  Josiah  Quincy,  in  a  famous  speech,  designated  them 
simply  as  James  I.  and  James  II.  The  two  were  alike  Jeffer- 
sonian  ;  their  administrations  moved  professedly  in  the  line  in 
dicated  by  their  predecessor,  and  the  success  of  his  policy  must 
be  tested  in  a  degree  by  that  of  theirs.  Both  inherited  some 
thing  of  his  unpopularity  with  the  Federalists,  but  Madison 
partially  lived  it  down,  and  Monroe  saw  nearly  the  extinction  of 
it.  The  Jeffersonian  policy  may,  therefore,  fairly  be  judged,  not 
alone  by  its  early  storms,  but  by  the  calm  which  at  last  followed. 
James  Madison  had  been  Secretary  of  State  for  eight  years 
under  Jefferson,  and  had  not  only  borne  his  share  earlier  than 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  361 

this  in  public  affairs,  but  had  furnished  a  plan  which  formed  the 
basis  of  the  Constitution,  and  had  afterwards  aided  Hamilton 
and  Jay  in  writing  The  Federalist  in  support  of  it.  For  these 
reasons,  and  because  he  was  the  last  survivor  of  those  who 
signed  the  great  act  of  national  organization,  he  was  called,  be 
fore  his  death,  "  The  Father  of  the  Constitution."  He  was  a 
man  of  clear  head,  modest  manners,  and  peaceful  disposition. 
His  bitter  political  opponents  admitted  that  he  was  honorable, 
well  informed,  and  even,  in  his  own  way,  patriotic ;  not  mean 
or  malignant.  As  to  his  appearance,  he  is  described  by  one  of 
these  opponents,  William  Sullivan,  as  one  who  had  "  a  calm  ex 
pression,  a  penetrating  blue  eye,  and  who  looked  like  a  think 
ing  man."  In  figure,  he  was  small  and  rather  stout;  he  was 
partially  bald,  wore  powder  in  his  hair,  and  dressed  in  black, 
without  any  of  Jefferson's  slovenliness.  In  speech  he  was  slow 
and  grave.  Mrs.  Madison  was  a  pleasing  woman,  twenty  years 
younger  than  himself,  and  they  had  no  children. 

Their  arrival  brought  an  immediate  change  in  the  manners 
of  the  President's  house ;  they  were  both  fond  of  society  and 
ceremony,  and  though  the  new  President  claimed  to  be  the  most 
faithful  of  Jeffersonians,  he  found  no  difficulty  in  restoring  the 
formal  receptions  which  his  predecessor  had  disused.  These 
levees  were  held  in  what  a  British  observer  of  that  day  called 
the  "  President's  palace,"  a  building  which  the  same  observer 
(Gleig)  afterwards  described  as  "  small,  incommodious,  and 
plain,"  although  its  walls  were  the  same  with  those  of  the  pres 
ent  White  House,  only  the  interior  having  been  burned  by  the 
British  in  the  war  soon  to  be  described.  Such  as  it  was,  it  was 
thrown  open  at  these  levees,  which  every  one  was  free  to  attend, 
while  music  played,  and  the  costumes  of  foreign  ambassadors 
gave,  as  now,  some  gayety  to  the  scene.  Mrs.  Madison,  accord 
ing  to  a  keen  observer,  Mrs.  Quincy,  wore  on  these  occasions 
her  carriage  dress,  the  same  in  which  she  appeared  on  Sunday 
at  the  Capitol,  where  religious  services  were  then  held — "  a  pur- 


362  HISTORY   OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

pie  velvet  pelisse,  and  a  hat  trimmed  with  ermine.  A  very  ele 
gant  costume,"  adds  this  feminine  critic,  "  but  not,  I  thought, 
appropriate  to  a  lady  receiving  company  at  home."  At  another 
time  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Quincy  dined  at  the  President's  house,  "  in 
the  midst  of  the  enemy's  camp,"  they  being  the  only  Federalists 
among  some  five -and -twenty  Democrats.  The  house,  Mrs. 
Quincy  tells  us,  was  richly  but  incongruously  furnished,  "  not  of 
a  piece,  as  we  ladies  say."  On  this  occasion  Mrs.  Madison  wore 
black  velvet,  \vith  a  very  rich  head-dress  of  coqueticot  and  gold, 
having  on  a  necklace  of  the  same  color.  At  another  time  Mrs. 
Quincy  went  by  invitation  with  her  children,  and  was  shown 
through  the  front  rooms.  Meeting  the  lady  of  the  house,  she 
apologized  for  the  liberty,  and  Mrs.  Madison  said,  gracefully, 
u  It  is  as  much  your  house  as  it  is  mine,  ladies."  The  answer 
has  a  certain  historic  value ;  it  shows  that  the  spirit  of  Jefferson 
had  already  wrought  a  change  in  the  direction  of  democratic 
feeling.  Such  a  remark  would  hardly  have  been  made  by  Mrs. 
Washington,  or  even  by  Mrs.  Adams. 

The  tone  of  society  in  Washington  had  undoubtedly  some 
thing  of  the  coarser  style  which  then  prevailed  in  all  countries. 
Men  drank  more  heavily,  wrangled  more  loudly,  and  there  was  a 
good  deal  of  what  afterwards  came  to  be  known  as  "  plantation 
manners."  The  mutual  bearing  of  Congressmen  was  that  of 
courtesy,  tempered  by  drunkenness  and  duelling ;  and  it  was 
true  then,  as  always,  that  every  duel  caused  ten  new  quarrels 
for  each  one  that  it  decided.  When  Josiah  Quincy,  then  the 
leader  of  the  Federalists  in  Congress,  made  his  famous  speech 
against  the  invasion  of  Canada  (January  5,  1813),  and  Henry 
Clay,  then  Speaker  of  the  House,  descended  from  the  chair  ex 
pressly  to  force  him  to  the  alternative  of  "  a  duel  or  disgrace  " — 
as  avowed  by  one  of  his  friends  to  Mr.  Quincy — it  was  not  held 
to  be  anything  but  honorable  action,  and  only  the  high  moral 
courage  of  Mr.  Quincy  enabled  him  to  avoid  the  alternative. 
On  a  later  occasion,  Mr.  Grundy,  of  Tennessee,  having  to  an- 


JAMES   MADISON. 
[Engraved  by  G.  Kruell,  from  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  owned  by  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge,  Esq.,  Boston.] 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  365 

swer  another  speech  by  Mr.  Quincy,  took  pains  to  explain  to 
him  privately  that  though  he  must  abuse  him  as  a  representa 
tive  Federalist  or  else  lose  his  election,  he  would  endeavor  to 
bestow  the  abuse  like  a  gentleman.  "  Except  Tim  Pickering," 
said  this  frank  Tennessean,  "  there  is  not  a  man  in  the  United 
States  so  perfectly  hated  by  the  people  of  my  district  as  your 
self.  By I  must  abuse  you,  or  I  shall  never  get  re-elected. 

I  will  do  it,  however,  genteelly.  I  will  not  do  it  as  that  - 
fool  Clay  did  it,  strike  so  hard  as  to  hurt  myself.  But  abuse 
you  I  must."  Seeing  by  this  explanation  what  was  the  tone  of 
Congressional  manners  when  putting  on  gentility,  we  can  form 
some  conception  of  what  they  were  on  those  more  frequent  oc 
casions  when  they  were  altogether  ungenteel. 

But  the  amenities  of  Mrs.  Madison  and  the  gentilities  of  Mr. 
Grundy  were  alike  interrupted  by  the  excitements  of  war — "  the 
war  of  1812,"  habitually  called  "the  late  war"  until  there  was 
one  still  later.  For  this  contest,  suddenly  as  it  came  at  last, 
there  were  years  of  preparation.  Long  had  the  United  States 
suffered  the  bitter  experience  of  being  placed  between  two  con 
tending  nations,  neither  of  which  could  be  made  into  a  friend,  or 
easily  reached  as  an  enemy.  Napoleon  with  his  "  Decrees,"  the 
British  government  with  its  "  Orders  in  Council,"  had  in  turn 
preyed  upon  American  commerce,  and  it  was  scarce  reviving 
from  the  paralysis  of  Jefferson's  embargo.  At  home,  men  were 
divided  as  to  the  remedy,  and  the  old  sympathies  for  France  and 
for  England  re-appeared  on  each  side.  Unfortunately  for  the 
Federalists,  while  they  were  wholly  right  in  many  of  their  criti 
cisms  on  the  manner  in  which  the  war  came  about,  they  put 
themselves  in  the  wrong  as  to  its  main  feature.  We  can  now 
see  that  in  their  just  wrath  against  Napoleon  they  would  have 
let  the  nation  remain  in  a  position  of  perpetual  childhood  and 
subordination  before  England.  No  doubt  there  were  various 
points  at  issue  in  the  impending  contest,  but  the  most  important 
one,  and  the  only  one  that  remained  in  dispute  all  through  the 


366  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

war,  was  that  of  the  right  of  search  and  impressment — the  Eng 
lish  claiming  the  right  to  visit  American  vessels,  and  impress 
into  the  naval  service  any  sailors  who  appeared  to  be  British 
subjects.  The  one  great  object  of  the  war  of  1812  was  to  get 
rid  of  this  insolent  and  degrading  practice. 

It  must  be  understood  that  this  was  not  a  question  of  re 
claiming  deserters  from  the  British  navy,  for  the  seamen  in  ques 
tion  had  very  rarely  belonged  to  it.  There  existed  in  England 
at  that  time  an  outrage  on  civilization,  now  abandoned,  called 
impressment,  by  which  any  sailor  and  many  who  were  not  sail 
ors  could  be  seized  and  compelled  to  serve  in  the  navy.  The 
horrors  of  the  "  press-gang,"  as  exhibited  in  the  sea-side  towns  of 
England,  have  formed  the  theme  of  many  novels.  It  was  bad 
enough  at  home,  but  wrhen  applied  on  board  the  vessels  of  a  na 
tion  with  which  England  was  at  peace,  it  became  one  of  those 
outrages  which  only  proceed  from  the  strong  to  the  weak,  and 
are  never  reciprocated.  Lord  Collingwood  said  well,  in  one  of 
his  letters,  that  England  would  not  submit  to  such  an  aggression 
for  an  hour.  Merely  to  yield  to  visitation  for  such  a  purpose 
was  a  confession  of  national  weakness ;  but  the  actual  case  was 
far  worse  than  this.  Owing  to  the  similarity  of  language,  it  was 
always  difficult  to  distinguish  between  English  and  American 
seamen ;  and  the  temptation  was  irresistible  to  the  visiting  offi 
cer,  anxious  for  the  enlargement  of  his  own  crew,  to  give  Eng 
land  the  benefit  of  the  doubt.  The  result  was  that  an  English 
lieutenant,  or  even  midshipman,  once  on  board  an  American 
ship,  was,  in  the  words  of  the  English  writer  Cobbett,  "  at  once 
accuser,  witness,  judge,  and  captor,"  and  we  have  also  Cobbett's 
statement  of  the  consequences.  "  Great  numbers  of  Americans 
have  been  impressed,"  he  adds,  "  and  are  now  in  our  navy.  .  .  . 
That  many  of  these  men  have  died  on  board  our  ships,  that 
many  have  been  wrorn  out  in  the  service,  there  is  no  doubt. 
Some  obtain  their  release  through  the  application  of  the  Ameri 
can  Consul,  and  of  these  the  sufferings  have  been  in  many  in- 


cL     > 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  369 

stances  very  great.  There  have  been  instances  where  men  have 
thus  got  free  after  having  been  flogged  through  the  fleet  for 
desertion."  Between  1797  and  1801  more  than  two  thousand 
applications  for  impressed  seamen  were  made  through  the  Amer 
ican  Minister;  and  of  these  only  one  -  twentieth  were  proved 
to  be  British  subjects,  though  nearly  one -half  were  retained 
for  further  proof.  When  the  Hornet  captured  the  British 
sloop  Peacock,  the  victors  found  on  board  three  American  sea 
men  who  had  been  forced,  by  holding  pistols  at  their  heads,  to 
fight  against  their  own  countrymen.  Four  American  seamen 
on  the  British  ship  Actcea  were  ordered  five  dozen  lashes,  then 
four  dozen,  then  two  dozen,  then  kept  in  irons  three  months,  for 
refusing  to  obey  orders  under  similar  circumstances.  There 
was  nothing  new  about  the  grievance ;  it  had  been  the  subject 
of  indignant  negotiation  since  1789.  In  1796  Timothy  Picker 
ing,  Secretary  of  State,  a  representative  Federalist,  had  de 
nounced  the  practice  of  search  and  impressment  as  the  sacrifice 
of  the  rights  of  an  independent  nation,  and  lamented  "  the  long 
and  fruitless  attempts"  to  correct  it.  In  1806  the  merchants  of 
Boston  had  called  upon  the  general  government  to  "  assert  our 
rights  and  support  the  dignity  of  the  United  States ;"  and  the 
merchants  of  Salem  had  offered  to  "  pledge  their  lives  and  prop 
erties  "  in  support  of  necessary  measures  of  redemption.  Yet 
it  shows  the  height  of  party  feeling  that  when,  in  1812,  Mr. 
Madison's  government  finally  went  to  war  for  these  very  rights, 
the  measure  met  with  the  bitterest  opposition  from  the  whole 
Federalist  party,  and  from  the  commercial  States  generally.  A 
good  type  of  the  Federalist  opposition  on  this  particular  point 
is  to  be  found  in  the  pamphlets  of  John  Lowell. 

John  Lowell  was  the  son  of  the  eminent  Massachusetts  judge 
of  that  name ;  he  was  a  well-educated  lawyer,  who  was  president 
of  the  Massachusetts  Agricultural  Society,  and  wrote  under  the 
name  of  "  A  New  England  Farmer."  In  spite  of  the  protests 
offered  half  a  dozen  years  before  by  his  own  neighbors,  he  de- 

24 


370  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

clared  the  whole  outcry  against  impressment  to  be  a  device  of 
Mr.  Madison's  party.  The  nation,  he  said,  was  "  totally  opposed 
to  a  war  for  the  purpose  of  protecting  British  seamen  against 
their  own  sovereign."  The  whole  matter  at  issue,  he  asserted, 
was  "  the  protection  of  renegadoes  and  deserters  from  the  Brit 
ish  navy."  He  argued  unflinchingly  for  the  English  right  of 
search,  called  it  a  "  consecrated  "  right,  maintained  that  the  alle 
giance  of  British  subjects  was  perpetual,  and  that  no  residence 
in  a  foreign  country  could  absolve  them.  He  held  that  every 
sailor  born  in  Great  Britain,  whether  naturalized  in  America  or 
not,  should  be  absolutely  excluded  from  American  ships ;  and 
that,  until  this  was  done,  the  right  to  search  American  vessels 
and  take  such  sailors  out  was  the  only  restraint  on  the  abuse. 
He  was  a  man  of  great  ability  and  public  spirit,  and  yet  he  held 
views  which  now  seem  to  have  renounced  all  national  self-re 
spect.  While  such  a  man,  with  a  large  party  behind  him,  took 
this  position,  it  must  simply  be  said  that  the  American  republic 
had  not  yet  asserted  itself  to  be  a  nation.  Soon  after  the  Revo 
lution,  when  some  one  spoke  of  that  contest  to  Franklin  as  the 
war  for  independence,  he  said,  "  Say  rather  the  war  of  the  Rev 
olution;  the  war  for  independence  is  yet  to  be  fought."  The 
war  of  1812  was  just  the  contest  he  described. 

To  this  excitement  directed  against  the  war,  the  pulpit  very 
largely  contributed,  the  chief  lever  applied  by  the  Federalist 
clergy  being  found  in  the  atrocities  of  Napoleon.  "  The  chief 
tain  of  Europe,  drunk  with  blood,  casts  a  look  upon  us ;  he 
raises  his  voice,  more  terrible  than  the  midnight  yell  of  sav 
ages  at  the  doors  of  our  forefathers."  These  melodramatic 
words  are  from  a  sermon,  once  famous,  delivered  by  Rev.  Dan 
iel  Parish,  of  Byfield,  Massachusetts,  on  Fast  Day,  1810.  Else 
where  he  says :  "  Would  you  establish  those  in  the  first  offices 
of  the  land  who  will  poison  the  hearts  of  your  children  with 
infidelity,  \vho  will  harness  them  in  the  team  of  Hollanders  and 
Germans  and  Swiss  and  Italians  to  draw  the  triumphal  car  of 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  371 

Napoleon  ?  Are  you  nursing  your  sons  to  be  dragged  into  his 
armies  ?"  The  climax  was  reached  when  one  pulpit  orator 
wound  up  his  appeal  by  asking  his  audience  if  they  were  ready 
to  wear  wooden  shoes,  in  allusion  to  the  sabots  of  the  French 
peasants. 

A  curious  aspect  of  the  whole  affair  was  the  firm  convic 
tion  of  the  Federalists  that  they  themselves  were  utterly  free 
from  all  partisan  feeling,  and  that  what  they  called  the  "  Baleful 
Demon,  Party,"  existed  only  on  the  other  side.  For  the  Demo 
crats  to  form  Jacobin  societies  was  an  outrage;  but  the  "  Wash 
ington  Benevolent  Societies "  of  the  Federalists  were  claimed 
to  be  utterly  non-political,  though  they  marched  with  banners, 
held  quarterly  meetings,  and  were  all  expected  to  vote  one  way. 
At  one  of  their  gatherings,  in  1 789,  there  was  a  company  of 
"  School-boy  Federalists "  to  the  number  of  two  hundred  and 
fifty,  uniformed  in  blue  and  white,  and  wearing  Washington's 
Farewell  Address  in  red  morocco  around  their  necks.  It  was 
a  sight  hardly  to  be  paralleled  in  the  most  excited  election  of 
these  days ;  yet  the  Federalists  stoutly  maintained  that  there 
was  nothing  partisan  about  it ;  the  other  side  was  partisan. 
They  admired  themselves  for  their  width  of  view  and  their 
freedom  from  prejudice,  and  yet  they  sincerely  believed  that 
the  mild  and  cautious  Madison,  who  would  not  have  declared 
war  with  England  unless  forced  into  it  by  others,  was  plotting 
to  enslave  his  own  nation  for  the  benefit  of  France.  The 
very  names  of  their  pamphlets  show  this.  One  of  John  Low 
ell's  bears  on  the  title-page  "  Perpetual  War  the  policy  of  Mr. 
Madison  .  .  .  the  important  and  interesting  subject  of  a  con 
script  militia,  and  an  immense  standing  army  of  guards  and 
spies  under  the  name  of  a  local  volunteer  corps?  The  Feder 
alist  leaders  took  distinctly  the  ground  that  they  should  refuse 
to  obey  a  conscription  law  to  raise  troops  for  the  conquest  of 
Canada ;  and  when  that  very  questionable  measure  failed  by 
one  vote  in  the  Senate,  the  nation  may  have  escaped  a  serious 


372  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

outbreak.  Had  the  law  passed  and  been  enforced,  William  Sul 
livan  ominously  declares,  "  No  doubt  the  citizens  would  have 
armed,  and  might  have  marched,  but  not,  it  is  believed,  to  Can 
ada."  This  was  possibly  overstated ;  but  the  crisis  thus  arising 
might  have  been  a  formidable  matter. 

It  might,  indeed,  have  been  far  more  dangerous  than  the 
Hartford  Convention  of  1814,  which  was,  after  all,  only  a  peace 
able  meeting  of  some  two  dozen  honest  men,  with  George  Cabot 
at  their  head — men  of  whom  very  few  had  even  a  covert  pur 
pose  of  dissolving  the  Union,  but  who  were  driven  to  something 
very  near  desperation  by  the  prostration  of  their  commerce  and 
the  defencelessness  of  their  coast.  They  found  themselves  be 
tween  the  terror  of  a  conscription  in  New  England  and  the 
outrage  of  an  invasion  of  Canada.  They  found  the  President 
calling  in  his  Message  of  November  4,  1812,  for  new  and  mys 
terious  enactments  against  "  corrupt  and  perfidious  intercourse 
with  the  enemy,  not  amounting  to  treason,"  and  they  did  not  feel 
quite  sure  that  this  might  not  end  in  the  guillotine  or  the  lamp 
post.  They  saw  what  were  called  "  the  horrors  of  Baltimore  " 
in  a  mob  where  the  blood  of  Revolutionary  officers  had  been 
shed  in  that  city  under  pretence  of  suppressing  a  newspaper. 
No  one  could  tell  whither  these  things  were  leading,  and  they 
could  at  least  protest.  The  protest  will  always  be  remarkable 
from  the  skill  with  which  it  turned  against  Jefferson  and  Madi 
son  the  dangerous  States-rights  doctrines  of  their  own  injurious 
Virginia  and  Kentucky  resolutions.  The  Federalist  and  Dem 
ocratic  parties  had  completely  shifted  ground ;  and  we  can  now 
see  that  the  Hartford  Convention  really  strengthened  the  tra 
ditions  of  the  Union  by  showing  that  the  implied  threat  of  se 
cession  was  a  game  at  which  two  could  play. 

It  must  be  remembered,  too,  in  estimating  the  provocation 
which  led  to  this  famous  convention,  that  during  all  this  time 
the  commercial  States  were  most  unreasonably  treated.  In  the 
opinion  of  Judge  Story,  himself  a  moderate  Republican  and  a 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  373 

member  of  Congress,  "  New  England  was  expected,  so  far  as 
the  Republicans  were  concerned,  to  do  everything  and  have 
nothing.  They  were  to  obey,  but  not  to  be  trusted."  Their 
commerce,  which  had  furnished  so  largely  the  supplies  for  the 
nation,  was  viewed  by  a  great  many  not  merely  with  indiffer 
ence,  but  with  real  dislike.  Jefferson,  whose  views  had  more  in 
fluence  than  those  of  any  ten  other  men,  still  held  to  his  narrow 
Virginia-planter  opinion  that  a  national  business  must  somehow 
be  an  evil ;  and  it  was  hard  for  those  whose  commerce  his  em 
bargo  had  ruined  to  be  patient  while  he  rubbed  his  hands  and 
assured  them  that  they  would  be  much  better  off  without  any 
ships.  When  the  war  of  1812  was  declared,  the  merchants  of 
Boston  and  Salem  had — as  it  was  estimated  by  Mr.  Isaac  P. 
Davis,  quoted  in  the  memoirs  of  Mrs.  Quincy — twenty  million 
dollars'  worth  of  property  on  the  sea  and  in  British  ports.  The 
war  sacrificed  nearly  all  of  it,  and  the  losers  were  expected  to 
be  grateful.  In  a  letter  to  the  Legislature  of  New  Hampshire, 
four  years  before  (August,  1808),  Jefferson  had  calmly  recom 
mended  to  the  people  of  that  region  to  retire  from  the  seas  and 
"  to  provide  for  themselves  [ourselves]  those  comforts  and  con 
veniences  of  life  for  which  it  would  be  unwise  ever  to  recur  to 
other  countries."  Moreover,  it  was  argued,  the  commercial 
States  were  almost  exclusively  the  sufferers  by  the  British  intru 
sions  upon  American  vessels  ;  and  if  they  did  not  think  it  a  case 
for  war,  why  should  it  be  taken  up  by  the  States  which  were  not 
hurt  by  it  ?  Again,  the  commercial  States  had  yielded  to  the 
general  government  the  right  of  receiving  customs  duties  and  of 
national  defence,  on  the  express  ground  of  receiving  protection 
in  return.  Madison  had  pledged  himself — as  he  was  reminded 
in  the  once  famous  "  Rockingham  County  [New  Hampshire] 
address,"  penned  by  young  Daniel  Webster — to  give  the  nation 
a  navy ;  and  it  had  resulted  in  Mr.  Jefferson's  hundred  and  fifty 
little  gun-boats,  and  some  twenty  larger  vessels.  As  for  the 
army,  it  consisted  at  this  time  of  about  three  thousand  men  all 


374  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

told.  The  ablest  men  in  the  President's  cabinet — Gallatin  and 
Pinkney — were  originally  opposed  to  the  war.  The  only  mem 
ber  of  that  body  who  had  any  personal  knowledge  of  military 
matters  was  Colonel  James  Monroe,  Secretary  of  State;  and  it 
was  subsequently  thought  that  he  knew  just  enough  to  be  in 
the  way.  Nevertheless,  the  war  was  declared,  June  18,  1812 — 
declared  reluctantly,  hesitatingly,  but  at  last  courageously.  Five 
days  after  the  declaration  the  British  "  Orders  in  Council,'' 
which  had  partly  caused  it,  were  revoked;  but  hostilities  went  on. 
In  the  same  autumn  Madison  was  re-elected  President,  receiving 
128  electoral  votes  against  89  for  De  Witt  Clinton;  Elbridge 
Gerry,  of  Massachusetts,  being  chosen  Vice-president.  A  suffi 
cient  popular  verdict  was  thus  given,  and  the  war  was  continued. 
In  its  early  period  much  went  wrong.  British  and  Indians 
ravaged  the  North-western  frontier;  General  Hull  invaded  Can 
ada  in  vain,  and  finally  surrendered  Detroit  (August  15,  1812). 
He  was  condemned  by  court-martial,  and  sentenced  to  be  shot, 
but  was  pardoned  because  of  his  Revolutionary  services ;  and 
much  has  since  been  written  in  his  vindication,  making  it  alto 
gether  probable  that  he  was  simply  made  the  scapegoat  of  an 
inefficient  administration.  To  the  surprise  of  every  one,  it  was 
upon  the  sea,  not  the  land,  that  the  United  States  proved  emi 
nently  successful,  and  the  victory  of  the  Constitution  over  the 
Guerriere  was  the  first  of  a  long  line  of  triumphs.  The  num 
ber  of  British  war  vessels  captured  during  the  three  years  of 
the  war  was  56,  with  880  cannon  ;  the  number  of  American  war 
vessels  only  25,  with  350  guns;  and  there  were,  besides  these, 
thousands  of  merchant-vessels  taken  on  both  sides  by  privateers. 
But  these  mere  statistics  tell  nothing  of  the  excitement  of  those 
picturesque  victories  which  so  long  thrilled  the  heart  of  every 
American  school-boy  with  the  conviction  that  this  nation  was 
the  peer  of  the  proudest  upon  the  seas.  Yet  the  worst  predic 
tions  of  the  Federalists  did  not  exaggerate  the  injury  done  by 
the  war  to  American  commerce ;  and  the  highest  expectations 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  375 

of  the  other  party  did  no  more  than  justice  to  the  national  pres 
tige  gained  by  the  successes  of  the  American  navy.  It  is  fairly 
to  be  remembered  to  the  credit  of  the  Federalists,  however,  that 
but  for  their  urgent  appeals  there  would  have  been  no  navy, 
and  that  it  was  created  only  by  setting  aside  Jefferson's  pet  theo 
ries  of  sea  defence.  The  Federalists  could  justly  urge,  also,  that 
the  merchant-service  was  the  only  nursery  of  seamen,  and  that 
with  its  destruction  the  race  of  American  sailors  would  die  out — 
a  prediction  which  the  present  day  has  seen  almost  fulfilled. 

But,  for  the  time  being,  the  glory  of  the  American  navy 
was  secure ;  and  even  the  sea-fights  hardly  equalled  the  fame  of 
Perry's  victory  on  Lake  Erie,  immortalized  by  two  phrases, 
Lawrence's  "  Don't  give  up  the  ship,"  which  Perry  bore  upon 
his  flag,  and  Perry's  own  brief  despatch,  u  We  have  met  the 
enemy,  and  they  are  ours."  Side  by  side  with  this  came  Harri 
son's  land  victories  over  the  Indians  and  English  in  the  North 
west  Tecumseh,  who  held  the  rank  of  brigadier-general  in  the 
British  army,  had,  with  the  aid  of  his  brother,  "  the  Prophet," 
united  all  the  Indian  tribes  in  a  league.  His  power  was  broken 
by  Harrison  in  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe  (November  7,  1811), 
and  finally  destroyed  in  that  of  the  Thames,  in  Canada  (Octo 
ber  5,  1813),  where  Tecumseh  fell. 

But  the  war,  from  the  first,  yielded  few  glories  to  either  side 
by  land.  The  Americans  were  still  a  nation  of  woodsmen  and 
sharp-shooters,  but  they  had  lost  the  military  habit,  and  they  had 
against  them  the  veterans  of  Wellington,  and  men  who  boasted 
— to  Mrs.  Peter,  of  Washington — that  they  had  not  slept  under 
a  roof  for  seven  years.  Even  with  such  men,  the  raid  on  the 
city  of  Washington  by  General  Ross  was  a  bold  thing  —  to 
march  with  four  thousand  men  sixty  miles  into  an  enemy's 
country,  burn  its  Capitol,  and  retreat.  Had  the  Americans  re 
newed  the  tactics  of  Concord  and  Lexington,  and  fought  from 
behind  trees  and  under  cover  of  brick  walls,  the  British  com 
mander's  losses  might  have  been  frightful ;  but  to  risk  a  pitched 


376  HISTORY   OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

battle  was  to  leave  themselves  helpless  if  defeated.  The  utter 
rout  of  the  Americans  at  Bladensburg  left  Washington  to  fall 
defenceless  into  the  hands  of  the  enemy.  The  accounts  are 
still  somewhat  confused,  but  the  British  statement  is  that,  be 
fore  entering  the  city,  General  Ross  sent  in  a  flag  of  truce, 
meaning  to  levy  a  contribution,  as  from  a  conquered  town; 
and  the  flag  of  truce  being  fired  upon,  the  destruction  of  the 
town  followed.  Washington  had  then  less  than  a  thousand 
houses ;  the  British  troops  set  fire  to  the  unfinished  Capitol 
with  the  Library  of  Congress,  to  the  Treasury  Buildings,  the 
Arsenal,  and  a  few  private  dwellings.  At  the  President's  house 
— according  to  their  own  story,  since  doubted — they  found  din 
ner  ready,  devoured  it,  and  then  set  the  house  on  fire.  Mr. 
Madison  sent  a  messenger  to  his  wife  to  bid  her  flee.  She 
wrote  to  her  sister,  ere  going,  "  Our  kind  friend  Mr.  Carroll  has 
come  to  hasten  my  departure,  and  is  in  a  very  bad  humor  with 
me  because  I  insist  on  waiting  till  the  large  picture  of  General 
Washington  is  secured,  and  it  requires  to  be  unscrewed  from 
the  wall."  She  finally  secured  it,  put  it  into  the  hands  of  two 
gentlemen  passing  by,  Mr.  Jacob  Barker  and  Mr.  De  Peyster, 
and  went  off  in  her  carnage  with  her  sister,  Mrs.  Cutts.  The 
Federalist  papers  made  plenty  of  fun  of  her  retreat,  and  Mr. 
Lossing  has  preserved  a  fragment  of  one  of  their  ballads  in 
which  she  is  made  to  say  to  the  President,  in  the  style  of  John 
Gilpin, 

"Sister  Cutts  and  Cutts  and  I, 

And  Cutts's  children  three, 
Shall  in  the  coach,  and  you  shall   ride 

On  horseback  after  we." 

But,  on  the  whole,  the  lady  of  the  Presidential  "  palace  "  carried 
off  more  laurels  from  Washington  than  most  American  men. 

The  news  of  the  burning  of  Washington  was  variously  re 
ceived  in  England :  the  British  Annual  Register  called  it  "  a 
return  to  the  times  of  barbarism,"  and  the  London  Times  saw 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  377 

in  it,  on  the  contrary,  the  disappearance  of  the  American  repub 
lic,  which  it  called  by  the  withering  name  of  an  "  association." 
"  That  ill-organized  association  is  on  the  eve  of  dissolution,  and 
the  world  is  speedily  to  be  delivered  of  the  mischievous  example 
of  the  existence  of  a  government  founded  on  democratic  rebell 
ion."  But  the  burning  had,  on  the  contrary,  just  the  opposite 
effect  from  this.  After  Washington  had  fallen,  Baltimore  seemed 
an  easy  prey ;  but  there  was  a  great  rising  of  the  people ;  the 
British  army  was  beaten  off — the  affair  turning  largely  on  the 
gallant  defence  of  Fort  Me  Henry  by  Colonel  George  Armistead 
— and  General  Ross  was  killed.  It  was  at  this  time  that  Key's 
lyric  "  The  Star-spangled  Banner "  was  written,  the  author  be 
ing  detained  on  board  the  cartel-ship  Minden  during  the  bom 
bardment.  Before  this  there  had  been  various  depredations  and 
skirmishes  along  the  coast  of  Maine,  and  a  courageous  repulse 
of  the  British  at  Stonington,  Connecticut.  Afterwards  came 
the  well-fought  battle  of  Lundy's  Lane,  and  the  closing  victory 
of  New  Orleans,  fought  after  the  treaty  of  peace  had  been  actu 
ally  signed,  and  unexpectedly  leaving  the  final  laurels  of  the 
war  in  the  hands  of  the  Americans. 

After  this  battle  an  English  officer  visiting  the  field  saw 
within  a  few  hundred  yards  "  nearly  a  thousand  bodies,  all  ar 
rayed  in  British  uniforms,"  and  heard  from  the  American  officer 
in  command  the  statement  that  the  American  loss  had  consist 
ed  only  of  eight  men  killed  and  fourteen  wounded.  The  loss 
of  the  English  was  nearly  twenty -one  hundred  in  killed  and 
wounded,  including  two  general  officers.  A  triumph  so  over 
whelming  restored  some  feeling  of  military  self-respect,  sorely 
needed  after  the  disasters  at  Washington.  "  There  were,"  says 
the  Federalist  William  Sullivan, "  splendid  processions,  bonfires, 
and  illuminations,  as  though  the  independence  of  the  country 
had  been  a  second  time  achieved."  Such,  indeed,  was  the  feel 
ing,  and  with  some  reason.  Franklin's  war  for  independence 
was  at  an  end.  The  battle  took  place  January  8,  1815,  but  the 


3/8  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

treaty  of  peace  had  been  signed  at  Ghent  on  the  day  before 
Christmas.  The  terms  agreed  upon  said  not  one  word  about 
impressment  or  the  right  of  search,  but  the  question  had  been 
practically  settled  by  the  naval  successes  of  the  United  States; 


FRANCIS    SCOTT    KEY   AT    SEVENTEEN. 
[From  a  photograph  owned  by  his  daughter,  Mrs.  G.  H.  Pendleton.] 

and  so  great  were  the  rejoicings  on  the  return  of  peace  that 
even  this  singular  omission  seemed  of  secondary  importance. 

The  verdict  of  posterity  upon  the  war  of  1812  may  be  said 
to  be  this :  that  there  was  ample  ground  for  it,  and  that  it  com 
pleted  the  work  of  the  Revolution;  and  yet  that  it  was  the  im- 


THE  SECOND   WAR  FOR  INDEPENDENCE.  379 

mediate  product  of  a  few  ambitious  men,  whose  aims  and  princi 
ples  were  not  really  so  high  as  were  those  of  many  who  opposed 
the  war.  The  outrageous  impressment  of  American  seamen 
touched  a  point  of  national  pride,  and  justly;  while  the  United 
States  submitted  to  this  it  certainly  could  not  be  called  an  in 
dependent  nation  ;  and  the  abuse  was  in  fact  ended  by  the 
war,  even  though  the  treaty  of  peace  was  silent.  On  the  other 
side,  the  dread  entertained  of  Napoleon  by  the  Federalists  was 
perfectly  legitimate ;  and  this,  too,  time  has  justified.  But  this 
peril  was  really  far  less  pressing  than  the  other:  the  United 
States  needed  more  to  be  liberated  from  the  domineering  atti 
tude  of  England  than  from  the  remoter  tyranny  of  Napoleon, 
and  it  was  therefore  necessary  to  reckon  with  England  first. 
In  point  of  fact,  the  Federalists  did  their  duty  in  action ;  the 
commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  furnished  during  those  three 
years  more  soldiers  than  any  other;  and  the  New  England 
States,  which  opposed  the  war,  sent  more  men  into  the  field 
than  the  Southern  States,  which  brought  on  the  contest.  Un 
fortunately  the  world  remembers  words  better  than  actions  — 
litera  scripta  manet — and  the  few  questionable  phrases  of  the 
Hartford  Convention  are  now  more  familiar  in  memory  than 
the  fourteen  thousand  men  whom  Massachusetts  raised  in  1814, 
or  the  two  millions  of  dollars  she  paid  for  bounties. 

The  rest  of  Mr.  Madison's  administration  was  a  career  of 
peace.  Louisiana  had  long  since  (April  30,  1812)  become  a 
State  of  the  Union,  and  Indiana  was  also  admitted  (December 
n,  1816).  An  act  was  passed,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Lowndes,  of  South  Carolina,  providing  for  the  payment,  in  in 
stalments  of  ten  millions  of  dollars  annually,  of  the  national 
debt  of  one  hundred  and  twenty  millions.  Taxes  were  reduced, 
the  tariff  was  slightly  increased,  and  in  April,  1816,  a  national 
bank  was  chartered  for  a  term  of  twenty  years.  Here,  as  in 
some  other  matters,  at  least  one  of  the  parties  proved  to  have 
changed  ground,  and  the  Democratic  Republican  newspapers 


380  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

began  eagerly  to  reprint  Hamilton's  arguments  for  a  bank — 
arguments  which  they  had  formerly  denounced  and  derided. 
To  the  Federalists  the  passage  of  the  bank  act  was  a  complete 
triumph,  and  while  their  own  party  disappeared,  they  could  feel 
that  some  of  its  principles  survived.  A  national  bank  was  their 
policy,  not  that  of  Jefferson ;  and  Jefferson  and  Madison  had, 
moreover,  lived  to  take  up  those  theories  of  a  strong  national 
government  which  they  had  formerly  called  monarchical  and 
despotic.  The  Federalists  had  indeed  come  equally  near  to 
embracing  the  extreme  States-rights  doctrines  which  their  op 
ponents  had  laid  down;  but  the  laws  of  physical  perspective 
seem  to  be  reversed  in  moral  perspective,  so  that  our  own 
change  of  position  seems  to  us  insignificant,  while  an  equal 
change  on  the  other  side  looks  conspicuous  and  important. 
Be  this  as  it  may,  Mr.  Madison's  administration  closed  in  peace, 
partly  the  peace  of  good-nature,  partly  of  fatigue.  The  usual 
nominations  were  made  for  the  Presidency  by  the  Congressional 
caucuses,  but  when  it  came  to  the  voting  it  was  almost  all  one 
way.  The  only  States  choosing  Federalist  electors  were  Mas 
sachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  Delaware.  James  Monroe — Josiah 
Quincy's  "James  the  Second" — had  183  electoral  votes,  against 
34  for  Rufus  King,  so  that  four  years  more  of  yet  milder  Jeffer- 
sonianism  were  secured.  The  era  of  bitterness  had  passed,  and 
the  "  era  of  good  feeling  "  was  at  hand. 


XVI. 

THE  ERA   OF  GOOD  FEELING. 

MANY  Presidents  of  the  United  States  have  served  their 
country  by  remaining  at  Washington,  but  probably  James 
Monroe  was  the  only  one  who  ever  accomplished  great  good  by 
going  on  an  excursion.  Few  battles  in  the  Revolution  were  of 
so  much  benefit  to  the  nation  as  the  journey  which,  in  1817, 
the  President  decided  to  undertake.  There  were  two  especial 
reasons  for  this  beneficent  result :  the  tour  reconciled  the  peo 
ple  to  the  administration,  and  it  reconciled  the  administration 
to  what  seemed  the  really  alarming  growth  of  the  people. 

The  fact  that  Monroe  was  not  generally  held  to  be  a  very 
great  man  enhanced  the  value  of  this  expedition.  He  had  been 
an  unfortunate  diplomatist,  retrieving  his  failures  by  good-luck ; 
as  a  soldier,  he  had  blundered  at  Washington,  and  yet  had  re 
tained  enough  of  confidence  to  be  talked  of  as  probable  com 
mander  of  a  Canadian  invasion.  All  this  was  rather  advan 
tageous.  It  is  sometimes  a  good  thing  when  a  ruler  is  not 
personally  eminent  enough  to  obscure  his  office.  In  such  a 
case,  what  the  man  loses  the  office  may  gain.  Wherever  Wash 
ington  went  he  was  received  as  a  father  among  grateful  chil 
dren ;  Adams  had  his  admirers,  Jefferson  his  adorers;  Madison 
had  carried  through  a  war  which,  if  not  successful,  was  at  least 
a  drawn  game.  All  these,  had  they  undertaken  what  play-actors 
call  "  starring  in  the  provinces,"  would  have  been  received  as 
stars,  not  as  officials.  Their  applauses  would  have  been  given 


382  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

to  the  individual,  not  the  President.  But  when  Monroe  trav 
elled,  it  was  simply  the  Chief  Magistrate  of  the  nation  who  met 
the  eyes  of  men.  He  was  not  a  star,  but  a  member  of  the 
company,  a  stock  actor,  one  of  themselves.  In  the  speeches 
with  which  he  \vas  everywhere  received  there  was  very  little 
said  about  his  personality ;  it  was  the  head  of  the  nation  who 
was  welcomed.  Thus  stripped  of  all  individual  prestige,  the 
occasion  appealed  to  every  citizen.  For  the  first  time  the  peo 
ple  of  the  United  States  met  their  President  as  such,  and  felt 
that  they  were  a  nation. 

It  was  at  the  end  of  sixteen  years  of  strife — political  strife 
more  bitter  than  can  easily  be  paralleled  in  these  calmer  days. 
The  result  of  this  contest  may  in  some  respects  have  been 
doubtful,  but  on  one  point  at  least  it  was  clear.  It  had  extin 
guished  the  colonial  theory  of  government,  and  substituted  the 
national.  Hamilton  and  the  Federalists,  with  all  their  high 
qualities,  had  still  disbelieved  in  all  that  lay  beyond  the  domain 
of  experience.  But  experience,  as  Coleridge  said,  is  like  the 
stern-lights  of  a  ship,  illumining  only  the  track  already  passed 
over.  Jefferson,  with  all  his  faults,  had  steered  for  the  open 
sea.  Madison's  war  had  impoverished  the  nation,  but  had  saved 
its  self-respect.  Henceforward  the  American  flag  was  that  of 
an  independent  people — a  people  ready  to  submit  to  nothing, 
even  from  England,  which  England  would  not  tolerate  in  re 
turn.  And  it  so  happened  that  all  the  immediate  honor  of  this 
increased  self-respect  belonged,  or  seemed  to  belong,  to  the  party 
in  power.  Jefferson  was  the  most  pacific  of  men,  except  Madi 
son  ;  both  dreaded  a  standing  army,  and  shrank  with  reluctance 
from  a  navy ;  yet  the  laurels  of  both  arms  of  the  service,  such 
as  they  were,  went  to  Madison  and  Jefferson.  The  Federalists, 
who  had  begged  for  a  navy,  and  had  threatened  to  raise  an 
army  on  their  own  account,  now  got  no  credit  for  either.  That 
party  held,  on  the  whole,  the  best  educated,  the  most  high-mind 
ed,  the  most  solvent  part  of  the  nation,  yet  it  had  been  wrecked 


THE  ERA    OF  GOOD   FEELING.  383 

/ 

by  its  own  want  of  faith.  When  in  the  Electoral  College  Mon 
roe  had  183  votes,  against  34  for  Rufus  King,  it  was  plain  that 
the  contest  was  at  an  end,  and  that  the  nation  was  ready  to  be 
soothed.  Monroe  was  precisely  the  sedative  to  be  applied,  and 
his  journey  was  the  process  of  application. 

So  much  for  the  people ;  but  there  were  also  anxieties  to  be 
quieted  among  the  nation's  statesmen.  Not  only  did  the  peo 
ple  need  to  learn  confidence  in  their  leaders,  but  the  leaders  in 
the  people.  It  was  not  that  republican  government  itself  was  on 
trial,  but  that  its  scale  seemed  so  formidable.  Nobody  doubted 
that  it  was  a  thing  available  among  a  few  mountain  communi 
ties,  like  those  of  Switzerland.  What  even  the  Democratic 
statesmen  of  that  day  doubted — :and  they  had  plenty  of  reason 
for  the  fear — was  the  possibility  of  applying  self-government  to 
the  length  and  breadth  of  a  continent  peopled  by  many  millions 
of  men.  They  were  not  dismayed  by  the  principle,  but  by  its 
application ;  not  by  the  philosophy,  but  the  geography.  Wash 
ington  himself,  we  know,  was  opposed  to  undertaking  the  own 
ership  of  the  Mississippi  River;  and  Monroe,  when  a  member 
of  the  Virginia  Convention,  had  argued  against  the  adoption 
of  the  United  States  Constitution  for  geographical  reasons. 
"  Consider,"  he  said,  "  the  territory  lying  between  the  Atlantic 
Ocean  and  the  Mississippi.  Its  extent  far  exceeds  that  of  the 
German  Empire.  It  is  larger  than  any  territory  that  ever  was 
under  any  one  free  government.  It  is  too  extensive  to  be 
governed  but  by  a  despotic  monarchy."  This  was  the  view  of 
James  Monroe  in  1788,  at  a  time  when  he  could  have  little 
dreamed  of  ever  becoming  President.  He  w7as  heard  with  re 
spect,  for  he  had  been  one  of  the  Virginia  committee-men  who 
had  transferred  the  North-western  lands  to  the  United  States 
government,  and  he  wras  one  of  the  few  who  had  personally  vis 
ited  them.  Yet  he  had  these  fears,  and  the  worst  of  the  alarm 
was  that  it  had  some  foundation.  But  for  the  unexpected  alli 
ances  of  railway  and  telegraph,  does  anybody  believe  that  Maine, 


384  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Louisiana,  and  California  would  to-day  form  part  of  the  same 
nation  ?  In  the  mean  time,  while  waiting  for  those  mighty 
coadjutors,  the  journey  of  Mr.  Monroe  relieved  anxiety  in  a 
very  different  manner,  by  revealing  the  immense  strength  to 
which  the  national  feeling  had  already  grown.  At  any  rate, 
after  this  experience  he  expressed  no  more  solicitude.  In  his 
message  on  internal  improvements,  written  five  years  after  his 
journey,  he  described  the  American  system  of  government  as 
one  "  capable  of  expansion  over  a  vast  territory." 

Monroe  himself  was  now  fifty-nine  years  old,  and  formed  in 
physical  appearance  a  marked  contrast  to  the  small  size  and 
neat,  compact  figure  of  his  predecessor.  He  was  six  feet  high, 
broad-shouldered,  and  rather  raw-boned,  with  grayish-blue  eyes, 
whose  frank  and  pleasing  expression  is  often  mentioned  by  the 
writers  of  the  period,  and  sometimes  cited  in  illustration  of  Jef 
ferson's  remark  that  Monroe  was  "  a  man  whose  soul  might  be 
turned  inside  out  without  discovering  a  blemish  to  the  world." 
He  was  dignified  and  courteous,  but  also  modest,  and  even  shy, 
,so  that  his  prevailing  air  was  that  of  commonplace  strength  and 
respectable  mediocrity.  After  all  the  political  excitements  of 
the  past  dozen  years,  nothing  could  be  more  satisfactory  than 
this.  People  saw  in  him  a  plain  Virginia  farmer  addressing  au 
diences  still  mainly  agricultural.  Ralph  Waldo  Emerson  once 
said  to  me,  when  looking  for  the  first  time  on  John  P.  Hale,  of 
New  Hampshire,  then  at  the  height  of  a  rather  brief  eminence: 
"  What  an  average  man  he  is  !  He  looks  just  like  five  hundred 
other  men.  That  must  be  the  secret  of  his  power."  It  was 
precisely  thus  with  Monroe.  He  had  in  his  cabinet  men  of 
talents  far  beyond  his  own — Adams,  Calhoun,  Crawford,  Wirt; 
Jefferson  and  Madison  yet  lived,  his  friends  and  counsellors; 
Jackson,  Clay,  Webster,  and  Benton  were  just  coming  forward 
into  public  life ;  but  none  of  all  these  gifted  men  could  have 
re-assured  the  nation  by  their  mere  aspect,  in  travelling  through 
it,  as  he  did.  Each  of  these  men,  if  President,  would  have  been 


JAMES    MONROE. 

[From  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  owned  by  T.  Jefferson  Coolidge,  Esq.,  Boston.] 

25 


THE  ERA   OF  GOOD  FEELING.  387 

something  more  than  the  typical  official.  Monroe  precisely  filled 
the  chair,  and  stood  for  the  office,  not  for  himself. 

He  left  Washington  June  2,  1817,  accompanied  only  by  his 
private  secretary,  Mr.  Mason,  and  by  General  Joseph  G.  Swift, 
the  Chief  Engineer  of  the  War  Department.  The  ostensible 
object  of  his  journey  was  to  inspect  the  national  defences.  This 
explained  his  choice  of  a  companion,  and  gave  him  at  each  point 
an  aim  beyond  the  reception  of  courtesies.  With  this  nominal 
errand  he  travelled  through  Maryland  to  New  York  City,  trav 
ersed  Connecticut  and  Rhode  Island,  Massachusetts,  New  Hamp 
shire,  and  Maine,  then  a  district  only.  He  went  southward 
through  Vermont,  visited  the  fortifications  at  Plattsburg,  trav 
elled  through  the  forests  to  the  St.  Lawrence,  inspected  Sack- 
ett's  Harbor  and  Fort  Niagara ;  went  to  Buffalo,  and  sailed 
through  Lake  Erie  to  Detroit.  Thence  he  turned  eastward 
again,  returning  through  Ohio,  Pennsylvania,  and  Maryland. 
He  reached  home  September  i7th,  after  an  absence  of  more 
than  three  months. 

During  all  this  trip  there  occurred  not  one  circumstance  to 
mar  the  reception  of  the  President,  though  there  were  plenty  of 
hardships  to  test  his  endurance.  Everywhere  he  was  greeted 
with  triumphal  arches,  groups  of  school-children,  cavalcades  of 
mounted  citizens,  and  the  roar  of  cannon.  The  Governor  of 
Massachusetts,  by  order  of  the  Legislature,  provided  him  with 
a  military  escort  from  border  to  border;  no  other  State  appar 
ently  did  this,  though  the  Governor  of  New  Hampshire  apolo 
gized  for  not  having  official  authority  to  follow  the  example. 
Everywhere  there  were  addresses  of  welcome  by  eminent  citi 
zens.  Everywhere  the  President  made  answer.  Clad  in  the 
undress  uniform  of  a  Revolutionary  officer — blue  coat,  light  un 
derclothes,  and  cocked  hat  —  he  stood  before  the  people  a 
portly  and  imposing  figure,  well  representing  the  men  who 
won  American  freedom  in  arms.  His  replies,  many  of  which 
are  duly  reported,  seem  now  laudably  commonplace  and  reason- 


388  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

ably  brief ;  but  they  were  held  at  the  time  to  be  "  elegant  and 
impressive." 

We  see  a  lingering  trace  of  the  more  ceremonial  period  of 
Washington  and  Adams  when  the  semi-official  historian  of 
Monroe's  travels  reports  that  in  approaching  Hanover,  New 
Hampshire,  "  although  the  road  was  shrouded  in  clouds  of  dust, 
he  condescended  to  leave  his  carriage  and  make  his  entry  on 
horseback."  The  more  eminent  Federalist  leaders,  except  Mr. 
H.  G.  Otis,  took  apparently  no  conspicuous  part  in  the  recep 
tion  ;  but  their  place  was  supplied  by  others.  Elder  Goodrich 
of  the  Enfield  (New  Hampshire)  Shakers,  addressed  him  with 
"  I,  James  Goodrich,  welcome  James  Monroe  to  our  habitations;" 
and  the  young  ladies  of  the  Windsor  (Vermont)  Female  Acad 
emy  closed  their  address  by  saying,  "  That  success  may  crown 
all  your  exertions  for  the  public  good  is  the  ardent  wish  of 
many  a  patriotic  though  youthful  female  bosom.';  Later,  when 
traversing  "  the  majestic  forests  "  near  Ogdensburg,  New  York, 
"  his  attention  was  suddenly  attracted  by  an  elegant  collation, 
fitted  up  in  a  superior  style  by  the  officers  of  the  army  and  the 
citizens  of  the  country.  He  partook  of  it  with  a  heart  beating 
in  unison  with  those  of  his  patriotic  countrymen  by  whom  he 
was  surrounded,  and  acknowledged  this  unexpected  and  roman 
tic  civility  with  an  unaffected  and  dignified  complaisance." 

Philadelphia  had  at  this  time  a  population  of  112,000  in 
habitants;  New  York,  of  115,000;  Baltimore,  of  55,000;  Boston, 
of  40,000;  Providence,  of  10,000;  Hartford,  of  8000;  Pittsburg, 
of  7000;  Cincinnati,  of  7000;  St.  Louis,  of  3500;  Chicago  was 
but  a  fort.  The  Ohio  River  was  described  by  those  who  nar 
rated  this  journey  as  an  obscure  and  remote  stream  that  had 
"  for  nearly  six  thousand  years  rolled  in  silent  majesty  through 
the  towering  forests  of  the  New  World."  "  It  would  not  be," 
says  a  writer  of  that  period,  "  the  madness  of  a  deranged  imagi 
nation  to  conclude  that  this  stream  in  process  of  time  will  be 
come  as  much  celebrated  as  the  Ganges  of  Asia,  the  Nile  of 


THE  ERA   OF  GOOD  FEELING.  389 

Africa,  and  the  Danube  of  Europe.  In  giving  this  future  im 
portance  to  the  Ohio,  the  Mississippi  and  the  Missouri  cannot 
be  forgotten  as  exceeding  it  in  length  and  in  importance.  These 
astonishing  streams  may  hereafter,  as  civilization  progresses  in 
the  present  wilds  of  the  American  republic,  become  rivals  to 
the  Ohio."  When  we  consider  that  the  region  thus  vaguely 
indicated  is  now  the  centre  of  population  for  the  nation,  we 
learn  what  a  little  world  it  was,  after  all,  which  was  embraced 
in  the  Presidential  tour  of  James  Monroe.  Even  of  that  small 
realm,  however,  he  did  not  see  the  whole  during  these  travels. 
We  know  from  a  letter  of  Crawford  to  Gallatin,  quoted  by  Mr. 
Gilman,  that  a  good  deal  of  jealousy  was  felt  in  the  Southern 
States  at  Monroe's  "  apparent  acquiescence  in  the  seeming  man- 
worship  "  at  the  North ;  and  Crawford  thinks  that  while  the 
President  had  gained  in  health  by  the  trip,  he  had  "  lost  as 
much  as  he  had  gained  in  popularity."  The  gain  was,  however, 
made  where  he  most  needed  it,  and  another  tour  to  Augusta, 
Nashville,  and  Louisville  soon  restored  the  balance. 

The  President  being  established  at  the  seat  of  government, 
the  fruits  of  his  enlarged  popularity  were  seen  in  the  tranquillity 
and  order  of  his  administration.  The  most  fortunate  of  offi 
cials,  he  was  aided  by  the  general  longing  for  peace.  He  was 
yet  more  strengthened  by  the  fact  that  he  was  at  the  same  time 
governing  through  a  Democratic  organization  and  on  Feder 
alist  principles.  Nominally  he  held  the  legitimate  succession 
to  Jefferson,  having  followed,  like  Madison,  through  the  inter 
mediate  position,  that  of  Secretary  of  State,  which  was  in  those 
days  what  the  position  of  Prince  of  Wrales  was  and  is  in  Eng 
land.  But  when  it  came  to  political  opinions, -we  can  now  see 
that  all  which  Federalism  had  urged — a  strong  government,  a 
navy,  a  national  bank,  a  protective  tariff,  internal  improvements, 
a  liberal  construction  of  the  Constitution — all  these  had  become 
also  Democratic  doctrines.  WTere  it  not  for  their  traditional 
reverence  for  Jefferson's  name,  it  would  sometimes  have  been 


25* 


390  HISTORY   OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

hard  to  tell  Madison  and  Monroe  from  Federalists.  In  a  free 
country,  when  a  party  disappears,  it  is  usually  because  the  other 
side  has  absorbed  its  principles.  So  it  was  here,  and  we  never 
can  understand  the  extinction  of  Federalism  unless  we  bear  this 
fact  in  mind.  In  the  excitement  of  contest  the  combatants  had 
already  changed  weapons,  and  Federalism  had  been  killed,  like 
Laertes  in  "  Hamlet,"  by  its  own  sword.  For  the  time,  as  Craw 
ford  wrote,  all  were  Federalists,  all  Republicans. 

Henry  Clay,  who  remains  to  us  as  a  mere  tradition  of  win 
ning  manners  and  ready  eloquence,  was  almost  unanimously 
elected  and  re-elected  as  Speaker  of  the  House.  But  Clay  was 
a  Federalist  without  knowing  it;  he  wished  to  strengthen  the 
army,  to  increase  the  navy,  to  make  the  tariff  protective,  to  rec 
ognize  and  support  the  South  American  republics.  General 
Jackson  too,  the  chief  military  hero  of  the  period,  developed  the 
national  impulse  in  a  way  that  Jefferson  would  once  have  disap 
proved,  by  entering  the  territory  of  Spanish  Florida  (in  1818)  to 
fight  the  Seminoles,  and  by  putting  to  death  as  "  outlaws  and 
pirates  "  two  British  subjects,  Arbuthnot  and  Ambrister,  who 
led  the  Indians.  Then  the  purchase  of  Florida  for  five  millions 
was  another  bold  step  on  the  part  of  the  central  government, 
following  a  precedent  which  had  seemed  very  questionable  when 
Jefferson  had  annexed  Louisiana.  While  buying  this  the  na 
tion  yielded  up  all  claim  to  what  was  afterwards  Texas ;  and  all 
these  events  built  up  more  and  more  the  national  feeling — which 
was  the  bequest  of  Federalism — as  distinct  from  the  separate 
State  feeling  which  was  the  original  Democratic  stock  in  trade. 

It  is  the  crowning  proof  of  the  pacified  condition  to  which 
parties  were  coming  that  this  peace  survived  what  would  have 
been,  under  other  circumstances,  a  signal  of  war — the  first  and 
sudden  appearance  of  the  vexed  question  of  slavery.  It  came 
upon  the  nation,  as  Jefferson  said,  "  like  a  fire-ball  in  the  night." 
It  had  slumbered  since  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution,  and 
came  up  as  an  incident  of  the  great  emigration  westward.  For 


HENRY   CLAY. 
[From  a  drawing  by  Davignon,  owned  by  Louis  R.  Menger,  Esq.] 


THE  ERA    OF  GOOD   FEELING.  393 

a  time,  in  admitting  new  States,  it  was  very  easy  to  regard  the 
Ohio  River  as  a  sort  of  dividing  line,  and  to  alternately  admit 
a  new  Free  State  above  it  and  a  new  Slave  State  below  it.  In 
this  way  had  successively  come  in  Louisiana  (1812),  Indiana 
(1816),  Mississippi  (1817),  Illinois  (1818),  Alabama  (1819).  But 
when  the  process  reached  Maine  and  Missouri  the  struggle 
began.  Should  slavery  extend  beyond  the  Ohio  border  into  the 
great  Louisiana  purchase  ?  Again  was  every  aspect  of  the  mo 
mentous  question  debated  with  ardor,  Rufus  King  leading  one 
side,  John  Randolph  the  other,  each  side  invoking  the  traditions 
of  the  fathers,  and  claiming  to  secure  the  safety  of  the  nation. 
"At  our  evening  parties,"  says  John  Quincy  Adams  in  his  diary, 
"  we  hear  of  nothing  but  the  Missouri  question  and  Mr.  King's 
speeches."  The  contest  was  ended  by  Mr.  Clay's  great  effort 
of  skill,  known  in  history  as  the  Missouri  Compromise.  The 
result  was  to  admit  both  Maine  (1820)  and  Missouri  (1821),  with 
a  provision  thenceforward  excluding  slavery  north  of  the  line  of 
36°  30',  the  southern  boundary  of  Missouri.  John  Randolph 
called  it  "  a  dirty  bargain,"  and  christened  those  Northern  men 
who  had  formed  it  "  dough-faces  " — a  word  which  became  there 
after  a  part  of  the  political  slang  of  the  nation. 

Monroe,  in  a  private  letter  written  about  this  time  (Feb.  15, 
1820),  declared  his  belief  that  "the  majority  of  States,  of  physi 
cal  force,  and  eventually  of  votes  in  both  Houses,"  would  be  ulti 
mately  "on  the  side  of  the  non-slave-holding  States."  As  a  mod 
erate  Virginia  slave-holder  he  recognized  this  as  the  probable 
condition  of  affairs.  On  the  other  hand,  John  Quincy  Adams, 
strong  in  antislavery  feeling,  voted  for  the  compromise,  and  after 
wards  expressed  some  misgivings  about  it.  He  held  it  to  be 
all  that  could  have  been  effected  under  the  Constitution,  and  he 
shrank  from  risking  the  safety  of  the  Union.  "  If  the  Union 
must  be  dissolved,"  he  said,  "the  slavery  question  is  precisely  the 
question  upon  which  it  ought  to  break.  For  the  present,  how 
ever,  this  contest  is  laid  to  sleep""  And  it  slept  for  many  years. 


394  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

During  two  sessions  of  Congress  the  Missouri  question 
troubled  the  newly  found  quiet  of  the  nation,  but  it  did  not 
make  so  much  as  a  ripple  on  the  surface  of  the  President's  pop 
ularity.  In  1820  the  re-election  of  Monroe  would  have  been  ab 
solutely  unanimous  had  not  one  dissatisfied  elector  given  his 
vote  for  John  Quincy  Adams,  the  tradition  being  that  this  man 
did  not  wish  any  other  President  to  rival  Washington  in  una 
nimity  of  choice.  The  Vice-president,  Daniel  D.  Tompkins, 
was  re-elected  with  less  complete  cordiality,  there  being  fourteen 
votes  against  him  in  the  Electoral  College.  Then  followed  the 
second  administration  of  Monroe,  to  which  was  given,  perhaps 
by  the  President  himself,  a  name  which  has  secured  for  the 
whole  period  a  kind  of  peaceful  eminence.  It  was  probably 
fixed  and  made  permanent  by  two  lines  in  Halleck's  once  fa 
mous  poem  of  "  Alnwick  Castle,"  evidently  written  during  the 
poet's  residence  in  England  in  1822-23.  Speaking  of  the 
change  from  the  feudal  to  the  commercial  spirit,  he  says : 

"'Tis  what  'our  President,'  Monroe, 

Has  called  '  the  era  of  good  feeling.' 
The  Highlander,  the  bitterest  foe 
To  modern  laws,  has  felt  their  blow,    -. 
Consented  to  be  taxed,  and  vote, 
And  put  on  pantaloons  and  coat, 
And  leave  off  cattle-stealing." 

It  would  seem  from  this  verse  that  Monroe  himself  was  credited 
with  the  authorship  of  the  phrase ;  but  I  have  been  unable  to 
find  it  in  his  published  speeches  or  messages,  and  it  is  possible 
that  it  may  be  of  newspaper  origin,  and  that  Halleck,  writing 
in  England,  may  have  fathered  it  on  the  President  himself. 
This  is  the  more  likely  because  even  so  mild  a  flavor  of  face- 
tiousness  as  this  was  foreign  to  the  character  of  Monroe. 

Under  these  soothing  influences,  at  any  rate,  the  nation,  and 
especially  its  capital  city,  made  some  progress  in  the  amenities 
and  refinements  of  life.  It  was  a  period  when  the  social  eti- 


THE  ERA   OF  GOOD  FEELING.  395 

quette  of  Washington  City  was  going  through  some  changes ; 
the  population  was  growing  larger,  the  classes  were  less  distinct, 
the  social  duties  of  high  officials  more  onerous.  The  diary  of 
John  Ouincy  Adams  records  cabinet  meetings  devoted  to  such 
momentous  questions  as  who  should  make  the  first  call,  and  who 
should  be  included  in  the  official  visiting  lists.  Mrs.  Monroe, 
without  a  cabinet  council,  made  up  her  own  mind  to  retrench 
some  of  those  profuse  civilities  with  which  her  predecessor  had 
fatigued  herself.  Mrs.  Madison,  a  large,  portly,  kindly  dame, 
had  retired  from  office  equally  regretted  by  the  poor  of  Wash 
ington  and  by  its  high  life ;  but  she  had  gained  this  popularity 
at  a  severe  cost.  She  had  called  on  all  conspicuous  strangers ; 
Mrs.  Monroe  intended  to  call  on  nobody.  Mrs.  Madison  had 
been  always  ready  for  visitors  when  at  home ;  her  successor  pro 
posed  not  to  receive  them  except  at  her  regular  levees.  The  ex- 
Presidentess  had  presided  at  her  husband's  dinner-parties,  and 
had  invited  the  wives  of  all  the  men  who  were  to  be  guests ; 
Mrs.  Monroe  stayed  away  from  the  dinner-parties,  and  so  the 
wives  were  left  at  home.  Add  to  this  that  her  health  was  by 
no  means  strong,  and  it  is  plain  that  there  was  great  ground 
for  a  spasm  of  unpopularity.  She,  however,  outlived  it,  re-es 
tablished  her  social  relations,  gave  fortnightly  receptions,  and 
won  much  admiration,  which  she  probably  deserved.  She  was 
by  birth  a  Miss  Kortwright,  of  New  York,  a  niece  of  General 
Knox,  and  when  she  accompanied  her  husband  on  his  embassy 
to  Paris  she  had  there  been  known  as  "  la  belle  Americaine." 
She  was  pronounced  by  observers  in  later  life  to  be  "  a  most 
regal-looking  lady,"  and  her  manners  were  described  as  "  very 
gracious."  At  her  final  levee  in  the  White  House  "  her  dress 
was  superb  black  velvet ;  neck  and  arms  bare,  and  beautifully 
formed ;  her  hair  in  puffs,  and  dressed  high  on  the  head,  and 
ornamented  with  white  ostrich  plumes ;  around  her  neck  an  ele 
gant  pearl  necklace."  Her  two  fair  daughters — her  only  chil 
dren,  Mrs.  Hay  and  Mrs.  Gouverneur — assisted  at  this  reception. 


396  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

Such  was  the  hostess,  but  her  drawing-rooms,  by  all  contem 
porary  accounts,  afforded  a  curious  social  medley.  The  well- 
defined  gentry  of  the  Revolutionary  period  was  disappearing, 
and  the  higher  average  of  dress  and  manners  had  not  begun  to 
show  itself — that  higher  average  which  has  since  been  rapidly 
developed  by  the  influence  of  railroads  and  newspapers,  joined 
with  much  foreign  travel  and  a  great  increase  in  wealth.  It 
was  a  period  when  John  Randolph  was  allowed  to  come  to  din 
ner-parties  "  in  a  rough,  coarse,  short  hunting  coat,  with  small 
clothes  and  boots,  and  over  his  boots  a  pair  of  coarse  coating 
leggings,  tied  with  strings  around  his  legs."  At  Presidential  re 
ceptions,  in  the  words  of  an  eye-witness,  "  ambassadors  and  con 
suls,  members  of  Congress  and  officers  of  the  army  and  navy, 
greasy  boots  and  silk  stockings,  Virginia  buckskins  and  Yankee 
cowhides,  all  mingled  in  ill-assorted  and  fantastic  groups." 

Houses  in  Washington  had  become  much  larger  than  for 
merly,  and  a  similar  expansion  had  been  seen  in  the  scale  of 
entertainments.  It  is  not  uncommon  to  find  records  of  evening 
parties,  at  which  five  or  six  hundred  persons  were  present,  filling 
five  or  six  rooms.  When  John  Quincy  Adams,  then  Secretary 
of  State,  gave  a  reception  to  the  newly  arrived  hero,  General 
Andrew  Jackson,  eight  rooms  were  opened,  and  there  were  a 
thousand  guests.  It  was  regarded  as  the  finest  entertainment 
ever  given  in  Washington,  and  showed,  in  the  opinion  of  Sen 
ator  Mills,  of  Massachusetts,  "  taste,  elegance,  and  good-sense  " 
on  the  part  of  Mrs.  Adams.  Elsewhere  he  pronounces  her 
"  a  very  pleasant  and  agreeable  woman,"  but  adds,  "  the  Secre 
tary  has  no  talent  to  entertain  a  mixed  company,  either  by 
conversation  or  manners."  Other  agreeable  houses  were  that 
of  Mr.  Bagot,  the  British  Minister,  whose  wife  was  a  niece  of 
the  Duke  of  Wellington,  and  that  of  M.  Hyde  de  Neuville,  the 
French  Minister,  each  house  being  opened  for  a  weekly  recep 
tion,  whereas  the  receptions  at  the  White  House  took  place  but 
once  a  fortnight.  At  these  entertainments  they  had  music, 


THE  ERA    OF   GOOD   FEELING.  397 

cards,  and  dancing — country-dances,  cotillions,  with  an  occasional 
Scotch  reel.  It  was  noticed  with  some  surprise  that  even  New 
England  ladies  would  accept  the  hospitalities  of  Madame  de 


JOHN    RANDOLPH. 
[From  an  early  portrait  by  Stuart,  now  at  Williamsburgh,  Va.] 

Neuville  on  Saturday  evenings,  and  would  dance  on  what  they 
had  been  educated  to  regard  as  holy  time. 

Among  the  most  conspicuous  of  these  ladies  was  Mrs. 
Jonathan  Russell,  of  Boston,  full  of  sense  and  information,  but 
charged  with  some  eccentricities  of  costume ;  the  reigning  belle 


398  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

seems  to  have  been  the  wife  of  Commodore  Hull ;  and  one  of 
the  most  conspicuous  figures  was  Miss  Randolph,  of  Virginia, 
daughter  of  the  governor  of  that  State,  and  granddaughter  of 
ex-President  Jefferson — a  damsel  who  had  plenty  of  brains,  and 
could  talk  politics  with  anybody,  but  was  no  favorite  with  the 
ladies.  Among  the  men,  John  Randolph  was  the  most  brilliant 
and  interesting,  and  all  the  more  so  from  his  waywardness  and 
insolence.  In  public  life  he  preceded  Calhoun  in  the  opinions 
which  have  made  the  latter  famous ;  and  in  private  life  he  could, 
if  he  chose,  be  delightful.  "  He  is  now,"  Mr.  Mills  writes  to  his 
wife  in  1822,  "what  he  used  to  be  in  his  best  days — in  good 
spirits,  with  fine  manners  and  the  most  fascinating  conversation. 
I  would  give  more  to  have  you  see  him  than  any  man  living  on 
the  earth."  Add  to  these  Messrs.  Clay,  Webster,  Crawford,  Van 
Buren,  Rufus  King,  and  many  other  men  of  marked  ability,  but 
of  varied  social  aptitude,  and  we  have  the  Washington  of  that 
day.  By  way  of  background  there  was  the  ever-present  shadow 
of  slavery ;  and  there  were  occasional  visits  from  Indian  dele 
gations,  who  gave  war-dances  before  the  White  House  in  the 
full  glory  of  nakedness  and  paint. 

In  considering  this  social  development  we  must  remember 
that  under  Monroe's  administration  American  literature  may 
be  said  to  have  had  its  birth.  Until  about  his  time  prose  and 
verse  were  mainly  political ;  and  the  most  liberal  modern  collec 
tion  would  hardly  now  borrow  a  single  poem  from  the  little  vol 
ume  called  the  "Columbian  Oracle,"  in  which  were  gathered, 
during  the  year  1794,  the  choicest  effusions  of  D wight  and 
Humphreys,  Barlow  and  Freneau.  Fisher  Ames,  perhaps  the 
most  accomplished  of  the  Federalists,  and  the  only  one  who 
took  the  pains  to  make  "American  Literature"  the  theme  of  an 
essay,  had  declared,  in  1808,  that  such  a  literary  product  would 
never  exist  until  the  course  of  democracy  should  be  ended,  and 
despotism  should  have  taken  its  place.  "  Shall  we  match  Joel 
Barlow  against  Homer  or  Hesiod  ?"  he  asked.  "  Can  Thomas 


THE  ERA   OF  GOOD   FEELING.  399 

Paine  contend  with  Plato  ? .  .  .  Liberty  has  never  lasted  long  in 
a  democracy,  nor  has  it  ever  ended  in  anything  better  than  des 
potism.  With  the  change  of  our  government,  our  manners  and 
sentiments  will  change.  As  soon  as  our  emperor  has  destroyed 
his  rivals  and  established  order  in  his  army,  he  will  desire  to  see 
splendor  in  his  court,  and  to  occupy  his  subjects  with  the  culti 
vation  of  the  sciences." 

It  was  something  when  the  matter  of  a  national  literature 
came  to  be  treated,  not  thus  despairingly,  but  jocosely.  This 
progress  found  a  voice,  four  years  later,  in  Edward  Everett, 
who,  in  his  Cambridge  poem  on  "American  Poets"  (1812), 
prophesied  with  a  little  more  of  hope.  He  portrayed,  indeed, 
with  some  humor,  the  difficulties  of  the  native  bard,  since  he 
must  deal  with  the  Indian  names,  of  which  nobody  then  dreamed 
that  they  could  ever  be  thought  tuneful : 

"A  different  scene  our  native  poet  shames 
With  barbarous  titles  and  with  savage  names. 
When  the  warm  bard  his  country's  worth  would  tell, 
Lo  Mas-sa-chu-setts'  length  his  lines  must  swell. 
Would  he  the  gallant  tales  of  war  rehearse, 
'Tis  graceful  Bunker  fills  the  polished  verse. 
Sings  he,  dear  land,  those  lakes  and  streams  of  thine, 
Some  mild  Memphremagog  murmurs  in  his  line, 
Some  Ameriscoggin  dashes  by  his  way, 
Or  smooth  Connecticut  softens  in  his  lay. 
Would  he  one  verse  of  easy  movement  frame, 
The  map  will  meet  him  with  a  hopeless  name  ; 
Nor  can  his  pencil  sketch  one  perfect  act 
But  vulgar  history  mocks  him  with  a  fact." 

Still,  he  thought,  something  might  be  done  by-and-by,  even 
with  materials  so  rough : 

"  Oh  yes  !  in  future  days  our  western  lyres, 
Tuned  to  new  themes,  shall  glow  with  purer  fires, 
Clothed  with  the  charms,  to  grace  their  later  rhyme, 
Of  every  former  age  and  foreign  clime. 
Then  Homer's  arms  shall  ring  in  Bunker's  shock, 
And  Virgil's  wanderer  land  on  Plymouth  rock ; 


400  HISTORY  OF    THE   UNITED   STATES. 


Then  Dante's  knights  before  Quebec  shall  fall, 
And  Charles's  trump  on  trainband  chieftains  call. 
Our  mobs  shall  wear  the  wreaths  of  Tasso's  Moors, 
And  Barbary's  coast  shall  yield  to  Baltimore's. 
Here  our  own  bays  some  native  Pope  shall  grace, 
And  lovelier  beauties  fill  Belinda's  place." 

It  was  all  greatly  applauded,  no  doubt,  as  in  the  best  vein  of 
the  classic  Everett;  and  it  was  in  Monroe's  time,  five  or  ten 
years  later,  that  the  fulfilment  actually  began.  He  certainly 
could  not  be  called  an  emperor,  nor  could  his  court  be  termed 
splendid ;  yet  it  was  under  this  plain  potentate  that  a  national 
literature  was  born. 

The  English  Sydney  Smith  wrote  in  1818,  one  year  after 
Monroe's  accession  to  office :  "  There  does  not  appear  to  be  in 
America  at  thlo  time  one  man  of  any  considerable  talents." 
But  an  acuter  and  severer  literary  critic,  Lord  Jeffrey,  wrote, 
four  years  later  (January  27,  1822):  "The  true  hope  of  the 
world  is  with  you  in  America — in  your  example  now,  and  in 
fifty  years  more,  I  hope,  your  influence  and  actual  power."  It 
was  midway  between  these  two  dates  that  the  veteran  publish 
er  Mr.  S.  G.  Goodrich,  in  his  "  Recollections,"  placed  the  birth- 
time  of  a  national  literature.  "  During  this  period,"  he  says,  "  we 
began  to  have  confidence  in  American  genius,  and  to  dream 
of  literary  ambition."  The  North  American  Review  was  estab 
lished  in  1815;  Bryant's  "  Thanatopsis  "  appeared  in  1817;  Ir- 
ving's  "  Sketch-Book  "  in  1818;  Cooper's  "  Spy  "  in  1822.  When 
Monroe  went  out  of  office,  in  1825,  Emerson  was  teaching 
school,  Whittier  was  at  work  on  his  father's  farm,  Hawthorne 
and  Longfellow  were  about  to  graduate  from  college ;  but 
American  literature  was  born. 

People  still  maintained — as  a  few  yet  hold — that  these  vari 
ous  authors  succeeded  in  spite  of  the  national  atmosphere,  not 
t>y  means  of  it.  It  seems  to  me  easy  to  show,  on  the  contrary, 
that  they  all  impressed  themselves  on  the  world  chiefly  by  using 
the  materials  th<ey  found  at  home.  Longfellow,  at  first  steeped 


THE  ERA   OF  GOOD  FEELING. 


RUFUS    KING. 
[From  the  painting  by  Gilbert  Stuart,  owned  by  A.  Gracie  King,  Esq.] 

in  European  influences,  gained  in  strength  from  the  time  he 
touched  his  native  soil ;  nor  did  he  find  any  difficulty  in  weav 
ing  into  melodious  verse  those  Indian  names  which  had  ap 
palled  Mr.  Everett.  Irving,  the  most  exotic  of  all  these  writers, 

26 


402  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

really  made  his  reputation  by  his  use  of  what  has  been  called 
"  the  Knickerbocker  legend."  He  did  not  create  the  traditions 
of  the  Hudson ;  they  created  him.  Mrs.  Josiah  Ouincy,  sailing 
up  that  river  in  1786,  when  Irving  was  a  child  three  years  old, 
records  that  the  captain  of  the  sloop  had  a  legend,  either  super 
natural  or  traditional,  for  every  scene,  "  and  not  a  mountain 
reared  its  head  unconnected  with  some  marvellous  story."  The 
legends  were  all  there  ready  for  Irving,  just  as  the  New  Eng 
land  legends  were  waiting  for  Whittier.  Once  let  the  man  of 
genius  be  born,  and  his  own  soil  was  quite  able  to  furnish  the 
food  that  should  rear  him. 

Apart  from  this  social  and  literary  progress,  two  especial 
points  marked  the  administration  of  Monroe,  both  being  mat 
ters  whose  importance  turned  out  to  be  far  greater  than  any 
one  had  suspected.  The  first  was  the  introduction  of  a  definite 
term  of  office  for  minor  civil  officers.  When  the  First  Congress 
asserted  the  right  of  the  President  to  remove  such  officials  at 
all,  it  was  thought  a  dangerous  power.  In  practice  that  power 
had  been  but  little  used,  and  scarcely  ever  for  political  pur 
poses,  when  William  H.  Crawford,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury, 
was  touched  with  Presidential  ambition.  Most  of  the  minor 
officials  being  then  in  his  department,  he  conceived  the  plan  of 
pushing  through  a  bill  to  make  them  removable  every  four 
years.  It  seemed  harmless.  The  apparent  object  was  to  get 
rid  of  untrustworthy  revenue  officers.  It  was  enacted  with  so 
little  discussion  that  Benton's  "  Abridgment  of  Debates  "  does 
not  mention  its  passage.  It  was  signed  by  the  President  "  un 
warily,"  as  John  Quincy  Adams  tells  us,  on  May  15,  1820;  and 
instantly,  as  the  same  authority  asserts,  all  the  Treasury  officials 
became  "ardent  Crawfordites."  Jefferson  and  Madison  utterly 
disapproved  of  the  new  system ;  so  did  Adams,  so  did  Calhoun, 
so  did  Webster;  but  it  has  remained  unchanged  until  this  day, 
for  good  or  for  evil. 

It  so  happens  that  this  law  has  never  until  lately  been  iden- 


THE  ERA   OF  GOOD  FEELING.  403 

tified  with  the  period  of  Monroe ;  it  was  enacted  so  quietly  that 
its  birthday  was  forgotten.  Not  so  with  another  measure,  which 
was  not  indeed  a  law,  but  merely  the  laying  down  of  a  principle, 
ever  since  known  as  the  "  Monroe  doctrine ;"  this  being  simply 
a  demand  of  non-interference  by  foreign  nations  with  the  affairs 
of  the  two  American  continents.  There  has  been  a  good  deal  of 
dispute  as  to  the  real  authorship  of  this  announcement,  Charles 
Francis  Adams  claiming  it  for  his  father,  and  Charles  Sumner 
for  the  English  statesman  Canning.  Mr.  Oilman,  however,  in 
his  late  memoir  of  President  Monroe,  has  shown  with  exhaustive 
research  that  this  doctrine  had  grown  up  gradually  into  a  na 
tional  tradition  before  Monroe's  time,  and  that  he  merely  for 
mulated  it,  and  made  it  a  matter  of  distinct  record.  The  whole 
*  ^ 

statement  is  contained  in  a  few  detached  passages  of  his  mes 
sage  of  December  2,  1823.  In  this  he  announces  that  "the 
American  continents,  by  the  free  and  independent  condition 
which  they  have  assumed  and  maintain,  are  not  to  be  consid 
ered  as  subjects  for  colonization  by  European  powers."  Further 
on  he  points  out  that  the  people  of  the  United  States  have  kept 
aloof  from  European  dissensions,  and  ask  only  in  return  that 
North  and  South  America  should  be  equally  let  alone.  "  We 
should  consider  any  attempt  on  their  part  to  extend  their  sys 
tem  to  any  portion  of  this  hemisphere  as  dangerous  to  our 
peace  and  safety ;"  and  while  no  objection  is  made  to  any  ex 
isting  colony  or  dependency  of  theirs,  yet  any  further  intrusion 
or  interference  would  be  regarded  as  "  the  manifestation  of  an 
unfriendly  spirit  towards  the  United  States."  This,  in  brief,  is 
the  "  Monroe  doctrine  "  as  originally  stated ;  and  it  will  always 
remain  a  singular  fact  that  this  President — the  least  original  or 
commanding  of  those  who  early  held  that  office — should  yet  be 
the  only  one  whose  name  is  identified  with  what  amounts  to  a 
wholly  new  axiom  of  international  law. 

Apart  from  this,  Mr.  Monroe's  messages,  which  fill  as  many 
pages  as  those  of  any  two  of  his  predecessors,  are  conspicuously 


404  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

hard  reading;  and  the  only  portions  to  which  a  student  of  the 
present  day  can  turn  with  any  fresh  interest  are  those  which 
measure  the  steady  progress  of  the  nation.  "  Twenty-five  years 
ago,"  he  could  justly  say — looking  back  upon  his  own  first  dip 
lomatic  achievement — "  the  river  Mississippi  was  shut  up,  and 
our  Western  brethren  had  no  outlet  for  their  commerce.  What 
has  been  the  progress  since  that  time  ?  The  river  has  not  only 
become  the  property  of  the  United  States  from  its  source  to  the 
ocean,  with  all  its  tributary  streams  (with  the  exception  of  the 
upper  part  of  the  Red  River  only),  but  Louisiana,  with  a  fair 
and  liberal  boundary,  on  the  western  side,  and  the  Floridas  on 
the  eastern,  have  been  ceded  to  us.  The  United  States  now 
enjoy  the  complete  and  uninterrupted  sovereignty  over  the 
whole  territory  from  St.  Croix  to  the  Sabine."  This  was  writ 
ten  March  4,  1821.  Nevertheless,  the  President  could  not,  even 
then,  give  his  sanction  to  any  national  efforts  for  the  improve 
ment  of  this  vast  domain ;  and  he  vetoed,  during  the  following 
year,  the  "  Cumberland  Road  "  bill,  which  would  have  led  the 
way,  he  thought,  to  a  wholly  unconstitutional  system  of  internal 
improvements.  With  this  exception  his  administration  came 
into  no  very  marked  antagonism  to  public,  sentiment,  and  even 
in  dealing  with  this  he  went  to  no  extremes,  but  expressed  will 
ingness  that  the  national  road  should  be  repaired,  not  extended. 
And  while  he  looked  upon  the  past  progress  of  the  nation 
with  wonder,  its  destiny  was  to  him  a  sealed  book.  Turning 
from  all  this  record  of  past  surprises,  he  could  find  no  better 
plan  for  the  future  development  of  the  post-office  department, 
for  instance,  than  to  suggest  that  all  the  mails  of  the  nation 
might  profitably  be  carried  thenceforward  on  horseback.  As  a 
crowning  instance  of  how  little  a  tolerably  enlightened  man 
may  see  into  the  future,  it  would  be  a  pity  not  to  quote  the 
passage  from  this  veto  message  of  May  4,  1822: 

"  Unconnected  with  passengers  and  other  objects,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
the  mail  itself  may  be  carried  in  every  part  of  our  Union,  with  nearly  as  much 


THE  ERA    OF  GOOD   FEELING.  405 

economy  and  greater  despatch,  on  horseback,  than  in  a  stage;  and  in  many 
parts  with  much  greater.  In  every  part  of  the  Union  in  which  stages  can  be 
preferred  the  roads  are  sufficiently  good,  provided  those  which  serve  for  every 
other  purpose  will  accommodate  them.  In  every  other  part,  where  horses  alone 
are  used,  if  other  people  pass  them  on  horseback,  surely  the  mail-carrier  can. 
For  an  object  so  simple  and  so  easy  in  the  execution  it  would  doubtless  excite 
surprise  if  it  should  be  thought  proper  to  appoint  commissioners  to  lay  off  the 
country  on  a  great  scheme  of  improvement,  with  the  power  to  shorten  distances, 
reduce  heights,  level  mountains,  and  pave  surfaces." 

Those  who  have  traversed  on  horseback,  even  within  twenty 
years,  those  miry  Virginia  roads  and  those  treacherous  fords 
with  which  President  Monroe  was  so  familiar,  will  best  appre 
ciate  this  project  for  the  post-office  accommodations  of  a  con 
tinent — a  plan  "  so  simple  and  easy  in  the  execution."  Since 
then  the  country  has  indeed  been  laid  off  "  in  a  great  scheme 
of  improvement,"  distances  have  been  shortened,  heights  re 
duced,  and  surfaces  paved,  even  as  he  suggested,  but  under  cir 
cumstances  which  no  President  in  1822  could  possibly  have 
conjectured.  Indeed,  it  was  not  till  the  following  administra 
tion,  that  of  John  Quincy  Adams,  that  the  first  large  impulse  of 
expansion  was  really  given,  and  the  great  western  march  began. 

26* 


XVII. 

THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH. 

THE  four  years'  administration  of  John  Quincy  Adams  is 
commonly  spoken  of  as  a  very  uninteresting  period,  but  it 
was  in  one  respect  more  important  than  the  twenty  years  that 
went  before  it  or  the  ten  years  that  followed.  For  the  first  time 
the  inhabitants  of  the  United  States  began  to  learn  in  how  very 
large  a  country  they  lived.  From  occupying  a  mere  strip  of 
land  on  the  Atlantic  they  had  spread  already  through  New 
York  and  Ohio ;  but  it  was  by  detached  emigrations,  of  which 
the  nation  was  hardly  conscious,  by  great  single  waves  of  popu 
lation  sweeping  here  and  there.  After  1825  this  development 
became  a  self-conscious  and  deliberate  thing,  recognized  and 
legislated  for,  though  never  systematically  organized  by  the 
nation.  When,  between  1820  and  1830,  Michigan  Territory  in 
creased  260  per  cent.,  Illinois  180  per  cent.,  Arkansas  Territory 
142  per  cent.,  and  Indiana  133  per  cent.,  it  indicated  not  a  mere 
impulse  but  a  steady  progress,  not  a  wave  but  a  tide.  Now  that 
we  are  accustomed  to  the  vast  statistics  of  to-day,  it  may  not 
seem  exciting  to  know  that  the  population  of  the  whole  nation 
rose  from  nearly  ten  millions  (9,633,822)  in  1820  to  nearly  thir 
teen  (12,866,020)  in  1830;  but  this  gain  of  one-third  was  at  the 
time  the  most  astounding  demonstration  of  national  progress. 
It  enables  us  to  understand  the  immense  importance  attached  in 
John  Quincy  Adams's  time  to  a  phrase  now  commonplace  and 
almost  meaningless — "  internal  improvements."  It  is  true  that 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  407 

during  his  term  of  office  more  commercial  treaties  were  nego 
tiated  than  under  all  his  predecessors ;  but  this,  after  all,  was 
a  minor  benefit.  The  foreign  commerce  of  the  United  States 
is  now  itself,  comparatively  speaking,  subordinate ;  it  is  our  vast 
internal  development  that  makes  us  a  nation.  It  is  as  the  great 
epoch  of  internal  improvements  that  the  four  years  from  1825 
to  1829  will  forever  be  momentous  in  the  history  of  the  United 
States. 

In  1825  the  nation  was  in  the  position  of  a  young  man  who 
has  become  aware  that  he  owns  a  vast  estate,  but  finds  it  to  be 
mostly  unproductive,  and  hardly  even  marketable.  Such  a  per 
son  sometimes  hits  upon  an  energetic  agent,  who  convinces  him 
that  the  essential  thing  is  to  build  a  few  roads,  bridge  a  few 
streams,  and  lay  out  some  building  lots.  It  was  just  in  this 
capacity  of  courageous  adviser  that  John  Quincy  Adams  was 
quite  ready  to  offer  himself.  On  the  day  of  his  inauguration 
the  greater  part  of  Ohio  was  yet  covered  with  forests,  and  Illi 
nois  was  a  wilderness.  The  vast  size  of  the  country  was 'still 
a  source  rather  of  anxiety  than  of  pride.  Monroe  had  expressed 
the  fear  that  no  republican  government  could  safely  control  a 
nation  reaching  so  far  as  the  Mississippi ;  and  Livingston,  after 
negotiating  for  the  purchase  of  Louisiana,  had  comforted  him 
self  with  the  thought  that  a  large  part  of  it  might  probably  be 
resold.  At  that  time  this  enormous  annexation  was  thought  to 
endanger  the  very  existence  of  the  original  thirteen  States. 

This  was  perhaps  nowhere  more  frankly  stated  than  by  an 
able  Fourth -of -July  orator  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  1813, 
Benjamin  R.  Nichols.  He  declares,  in  this  address,  that  to  ad 
mit  to  the  Union  new  States  formed  out  of  new  territory  is  "  to 
set  up  a  principle  which,  if  submitted  to,  will  make  us  more 
dependent  than  we  were  as  colonies  of  Great  Britain.  If  a  ma 
jority  of  Congress  have  a  right  of  making  new  States  where 
they  please,  we  shall  probably  soon  hear  of  States  formed  for 
us  in  East  and  West  Florida;  and,  should  it  come  within  the 


408  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

scope  of  the  policy  of  our  rulers,  of  others  as  far  as  the  Pacific 
Ocean.  If  all  this  be  right,  the  consequence  is  that  the  people 
of  New  England,  in  case  of  any  disturbances  in  these  newly 
created  States,  may,  under  pretence  of  suppressing  insurrections, 
be  forced  to  march,  in  obedience  to  the  Constitution,  to  the  re 
motest  corners  of  the  globe."  In  other  words,  that  which  now 
makes  the  crowning  pride  of  an  American  citizen,  that  the 
States  of  the  Union  are  spread  from  the  Atlantic  to  the  Pacific, 
was  then  held  up  by  a  patriotic  Federalist  as  the  very  extreme 
of  danger.  The  antidote  to  this  deadly  peril,  the  means  of  es 
tablishing  some  communication  with  these  "  remotest  corners  of 
the  globe,"  had  necessarily  to  be  found,  first  of  all,  in  internal 
improvements.  At  least,  under  these  circumstances  of  alarm,  a 
highway  or  two  might  be  held  a  reasonable  proposition ;  and  the 
new  President,  in  his  inaugural  address,  approached  the  subject 
with  something  of  the  lingering  stateliness  of  those  days : 

"  The  magnificence  and  splendor  of  their  public  works  are  among  the  im 
perishable  glories  of  the  ancient  republics.  The  roads  and  aqueducts  of  Rome 
have  been  the  admiration  of  all  after -ages,  and  have  survived  thousands  of 
years,  after  all  her  conquests  have  been  swallowed  up  in  despotism,  or  become 
the  spoil  of  barbarians.  Some  diversity  of  opinion  has  prevailed  with  regard 
to  the  powers  of  Congress  for  legislation  upon  subjects  of  this  nature.  The 
most  respectful  deference  is  due  to  doubts  originating  in  pure  patriotism,  and 
sustained  by  venerated  authority.  But  nearly  twenty  years  have  passed  since 
the  construction  of  the  first  national  road  was  commenced.  The  authority  for 
its  construction  was  then  unquestioned.  To  how  many  thousands  of  our  coun 
trymen  has  it  proved  a  benefit  ?  To  what  single  individual  has  it  ever  proved 
an  injury?" 

It  has  already  been  pointed  out  that  when  John  Quincy 
Adams  became  President  the  nation  had  been  governed  for 
a  quarter  of  a  century  by  Democratic  administrations,  acting 
more  and  more  on  Federalist  principles.  The  tradition  of 
States-rights  had  steadily  receded,  and  the  reality  of  a  strong 
and  expanding  nation  had  taken  its  place.  The  very  men  who 
had  at  first  put  into  the  most  definite  shape  these  States- 
rights  opinions  had,  by  their  action,  done  most  to  overthrow 


JOHN    QUIXCY   ADAMS. 
[From  the  painting  by  G.  P.  A.  Healy,  in  the  Corcoran  Gallery,  Washington.] 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  411 

them,  Jefferson  above  all.  By  the  purchase  of  Louisiana  he 
had,  perhaps  unconsciously,  done  more  than  any  President  be 
fore  him  to  make  national  feeling  permanent.  Having,  by  a 
happy  impulse,  and  in  spite  of  all  his  own  theories,  enormously 
enlarged  the  joint  territory,  he  had  recognized  the  need  of  open 
ing  and  developing  the  new  possession ;  he  had  set  the  example 
of  proposing  national  appropriations  for  roads,  canals,  and  even 
education;  and  had  given  his  sanction  (March  24,  1806)  to 
building  a  national  road  from  Maryland  to  Ohio,  first  obtaining 
the  consent  of  the  States  through  which  it  was  to  pass.  To 
continue  this  policy  would,  he  admitted,  require  constitutional 
amendments,  but  in  his  closing  message  he  favored  such  alter 
ations.  It  was  but  a  step  from  favoring  constitutional  amend 
ments  for  this  purpose  to  doing  without  them ;  Jefferson,  Madi 
son,  Monroe  had  done  the  one,  John  Quincy  Adams  did  the 
other. 

Of  course  it  took  the  nation  by  surprise.  Nothing  aston 
ishes  people  more  than  to  be  taken  at  their  word,  and  have  their 
own  theories  energetically  put  in  practice.  Others  had  talked 
in  a  general  wray  about  internal  improvements ;  under  President 
Monroe  there  had  even  been  created  (April  30,  1824)  a  national 
board  to  plan  them  ;  but  John  Quincy  Adams  really  meant  to 
have  them ;  and  his  very  first  message  looked  formidable  to 
those  who  supposed  that  because  he  had  broken  with  the  Fed 
eralists  he  was  therefore  about  to  behave  like  an  old-fashioned 
Democrat.  In  truth  he  was  more  new-fashioned  than  anybody. 
This  is  the  way  he  committed  himself  in  this  first  message : 

"  While  foreign  nations,  less  blessed  with  that  freedom  which  is  power  than 
ourselves,  are  advancing  with  gigantic  strides  in  the  career  of  public  improve 
ment,  were  we  to  slumber  in  indolence,  or  fold  up  our  arms  and  proclaim  to 
the  world  that  we  are  palsied  by  the  will  of  our  constituents,  would  it  not  be  to 
cast  away  the  bounties  of  Providence,  and  doom  ourselves  to  perpetual  in 
feriority  ?  In  the  course  of  the  year  now  drawing  to  its  close,  we  have  beheld, 
under  the  auspices  and  at  the  expense  of  one  State  of  this  Union,  a  new  uni 
versity  unfolding  its  portals  to  the  sons  of  science,  and  holding  up  the  torch  of 


412  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

human  improvement  to  eyes  that  seek  the  light.  We  have  seen,  under  the  per 
severing  and  enlightened  enterprise  of  another  State,  the  waters  of  our  western 
lakes  mingle  with  those  of  the  ocean.  If  undertakings  like  these  have  been 
accomplished  in  the  compass  of  a  few  years  by  the  authority  of  single  members 
of  our  confederation,  can  we,  the  representative  authorities  of  the  whole  Union, 
fall  behind  our  fellow-servants  in  the  exercise  of  the  trust  committed  to  us  for 
the  benefit  of  our  common  sovereign,  by  the  accomplishment  of  works  impor 
tant  to  the  whole,  and  to  which  neither  the  authority  nor  the  resources  of  any 
one  State  can  be  adequate  ?" 

Nor  was  this  all.  It  is  curious  to  see  that  the  President's 
faithful  ally,  Mr.  Rush,  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  went  far  be 
yond  his  chief  in  the  tone  of  his  recommendations,  and  drifted 
into  what  would  now  be  promptly  labelled  as  Communism. 
When  we  read  as  an  extreme  proposition  in  these  days,  in  the 
middle  of  some  mildly  socialistic  manifesto,  the  suggestion  that 
there  should  be  a  national  bureau  "  whereby  new  fields  can  be 
opened,  old  ones  developed,  and  every  labor  can  be  properly 
directed  and  located,"  we  fancy  it  a  novelty.  But  see  how  utter 
ly  Mr.  Rush  surpassed  th'ese  moderate  proposals  in  one  of  his 
reports  as  Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  He  said  that  it  was  the 
duty  of  government 

"to  augment  the  number  and  variety  of  occupations  for  its  inhabitants  ;  to  hold 
out  to  every  degree  of  labor  and  to  every  manifestation  of  skill  its  appropriate 
object  and  inducement ;  to  organize  the  whole  labor  of  a  country ;  to  entice 
into  the  widest  ranges  its  mechanical  and  intellectual  capacities,  instead  of  suf 
fering  them  to  slumber ;  to  call  forth,  wherever  hidden,  latent  ingenuity,  giving 
to  effort  activity,  and  to  emulation  ardor ;  to  create  employment  for  the  greatest 
amount  of  numbers  by  adapting  it  to  the  diversified  faculties,  propensities,  and 
situations  of  men,  so  that  every  particle  of  ability,  every  shade  of  genius,  may 
come  into  requisition." 

Let  us  now  turn  to  the  actual  advances  made  under  the 
guidance  of  Mr.  Adams.  Nothing  in  the  history  of  the  globe 
is  so  extraordinary  in  its  topographical  and  moral  results  as  the 
vast  western  march  of  the  American  people  within  a  hundred 
years.  Let  us  look,  for  instance,  at  some  contemporary  map 
of  what  constituted  the  northern  part  of  the  United  States  in 
1 798.  The  western  boundary  of  visible  settlement  is  the  Gene- 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARC  PL  413 

see  River  of  New  York.  The  names  on  the  Hudson  are  like 
the  names  of  to  -  day ;  all  beyond  is  strange.  No  railroad,  no 
canal ;  only  a  turnpike  running  to  the  Genesee,  and  with  no 
farther  track  to  mark  the  way  through  the  forest  to  "  Buffaloe," 
on  the  far-off  lake.  Along  this  turnpike  are  settlements, ';  Sche- 
nectady,"  "  Canajohary,"  "  Schuyler  or  Utica,"  "  Fort  Stenwick 
or  Rome,"  "  Oneida  Cassle,"  "  Onondaga  Cassle,"  "  Geneva,"  and 
"  Canandargue,"  where  the  road  turns  north  to  Lake  Ontario. 
Forests  cover  all  Western  New  York,  all  North-western  Penn 
sylvania.  Far  off  in  Ohio  is  a  detached  region  indicated  as 
"  the  Connecticut  Reserve,  conceded  to  the  families  who  had 
been  ruined  during  the  war  of  Independence"  —  whence  our 
modern  phrase  "Western  Reserve."  The  summary  of  the  whole 
map  is  that  the  nation  still  consists  of  the  region  east  of  the 
Alleghanies,  with  a  few  outlying  settlements,  and  nothing  more. 
Now  pass  over  twenty  years.  In  the  map  prefixed  to  Will 
iam  Darby's  "Tour  from  New  York  to  Detroit,"  in  1818 — this 
Darby  being  the  author  of  an  emigrant's  guide,  and  a  member 
of  the  New  York  Historical  Society — we  find  no  State  west  of 
the  Mississippi  except  Missouri,  and  scarcely  any  towns  in  In 
diana  or  Illinois.  Michigan  Territory  is  designated,  but  across 
the  whole  western  half  of  it  is  the  inscription,  "  This  part  very 
imperfectly  known."  All  beyond  Lake  Michigan  and  all  west 
of  the  Mississippi  is  a  nameless  waste,  except  for  a  few  names 
of  rivers  and  of  Indian  villages.  This  marks  the  progress — and 
a  very  considerable  progress — of  twenty  years.  Writing  from 
Buffalo  (now  spelled  correctly),  Darby  says :  "  The  beautiful  and 
highly  cultivated  lands  of  the  strait  of  Erie  are  now  a  specimen 
of  what  in  forty  years  will  be  the  landscape  from  Erie  to  Chi- 
caga  \_sic\.  It  is  a  very  gratifying  anticipation  to  behold  in 
fancy  the  epoch  to  come  when  this  augmenting  mass  of  the 
population  will  enjoy,  in  the  interior  of  this  vast  continent,  a 
choice  collection  of  immense  marts  where  the  produce  of  the 
banks  of  innumerable  rivers  and  lakes  can  be  exchanged." 


4H  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

Already,  it  seems,  travellers  and  map-makers  had  got  from 
misspelling  "Buffaloe"  to  misspelling  "  Chicaga."  It  was  a 
great  deal.  The  Edinburgh  Review  for  that  same  year  (June, 
1818),  in  reviewing  Birkbeck's  once  celebrated  "Travels  in 
America,"  said : 

"  Where  is  this  prodigious  increase  of  numbers,  this  vast  extension  of  do 
minion,  to  end?  What  bounds  has  nature  set  to  the  progress  of  this  mighty 
nation  ?  Let  our  jealousy  burn  as  it  may,  let  our  intolerance  of  America  be  as 
unreasonably  violent  as  we  please,  still  it  is  plain  that  she  is  a  power  in  spite 
of  us,  rapidly  rising  to  supremacy ;  or,  at  least,  that  each  year  so  mightily  aug 
ments  her  strength  as  to  overtake,  by  a  most  sensible  distance,  even  the  most 
formidable  of  her  competitors." 

This  was  written,  it  must  be  remembered,  when  the  whole 
population  of  the  United  States  was  but  little  more  than  nine 
millions,  or  about  the  number  now  occupying  New  York  and 
Pennsylvania. 

What  were  the  first  channels  for  this  great  transfer  of  pop 
ulation  ?  They  were  the  great  turnpike -road  up  the  Mohawk 
Valley,  in  New  York;  and  farther  south,  the  "National  Road," 
which  ended  at  Wheeling,  Virginia.  Old  men,  now  or  recently 
living — as,  for  instance,  Mr.  Sewall  Newhouse,  the  trapper  and 
trap-maker  of  Oneida — can  recall  the  long  lines  of  broad-wheeled 
wagons,  drawn  by  ten  horses,  forty  of 'these  teams  sometimes 
coming  in  close  succession ;  the  stages,  six  of  which  were  some 
times  in  sight  at  once;  the  casualties,  the  break -downs,  the 
sloughs  of  despond,  the  passengers  at  work  with  fence-rails  to 
pry  out  the  vehicle  from  a  mud-hole.  These  sights,  now  dis 
appearing  on  the  shores  of  the  Pacific,  were  then  familiar  in  the 
heart  of  what  is  now  the  East.  This  was  the  tide  flowing  west 
ward  ;  while  eastward,  on  the  other  hand,  there  soon  began  a 
counter -current  of  flocks  and  herds  sent  from  the  new  settle 
ments  to  supply  the  older  States.  As  early  as  1824  Timothy 
Flint  records  meeting  a  drove  of  more  than  a  thousand  cattle 
and  swine,  rough  and  shaggy  as  wolves,  guided  towards  the 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  415 

Philadelphia  market  by  a  herdsman  looking  as  untamed  as 
themselves,  and  coming  from  Ohio — "  a  name  which  still  sound 
ed  in  our  ears,"  Flint  says,  "  like  the  land  of  savages." 

The  group  so  well  known  in  our  literature,  the  emigrant 
family,  the  way-side  fire,  the  high-peaked  wagon,  the  exhausted 
oxen — this  picture  recedes  steadily  in  space  as  we  come  nearer 
to  our  own  time.  In  1788  it  set  off  with  the  first  settlers  from 
Massachusetts  to  seek  Ohio;  in  1798  it  was  just  leaving  the 
Hudson  to  ascend  the  Mohawk  River;  in  1815  the  hero  of 
"Lawrie  Todd  "  saw  it  at  Rochester,  New  York;  in  1819  Dar 
by  met  it  near  Detroit,  Michigan;  in  1824  Flint  saw  it  in  Mis 
souri;  in  1831  Alexander  depicted  it  in  Tennessee;  in  1843 
Margaret  Fuller  Ossoli  sketched  it  beyond  Chicago,  Illinois ;  in 
1856  I  myself  saw  it  in  Nebraska  and  Kansas;  in  1864  Clarence 
King  described  it  in  his  admirable  sketch,  "  Way-side  Pikes,"  in 
California;  in  1882  Mrs.  Leighton,  in  her  graphic  letters,  pict 
ures  it  at  Puget  Sound ;  beyond  which,  as  it  has  reached  the 
Pacific,  it  cannot  advance.  From  this  continent  the  emigrant 
group  in  its  original  form  has  almost  vanished ;  the  process  of 
spreading  emigration  by  steam  is  less  picturesque  but  more 
rapid. 

The  newly  published  volumes  of  the  United  States  Census 
for  1880  give,  with  an  accuracy  and  fulness  of  detail  such  as 
were  before  unexampled,  the  panorama  of  th's  vast  westward 
march.  It  is  a  matter  of  national  pride  to  see  how  its  ever- 
changing  phases  have  been  caught  and  photographed  in  these 
masterly  volumes,  in  a  way  such  as  the  countries  of  the  older 
world  have  never  equalled,  though  it  would  seem  so  much  easier 
to  depict  their  more  fixed  conditions.  The  Austrian  newspapers 
complain  that  no  one  in  that  nation  knows  at  this  moment,  for 
instance,  the  centre  of  Austrian  population ;  while  the  successive 
centres  for  the  United  States  are  here  exhibited  on  a  chart  with 
a  precision  as  great,  and  an  impressiveness  to  the  imagination 
as  vast,  as  when  astronomers  represent  for  us  the  successive 


416  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

positions  of  a  planet.  Like  the  shadow  thrown  by  the  hand  of 
some  great  clock,  this  inevitable  point  advances  year  by  year 
across  the  continent,  sometimes  four  miles  a  year,  sometimes 
eight  miles,  but  always  advancing.  And  with  this  striking  sum 
mary  the  census  report  gives  us  a  series  of  successive  represen 
tations  on  colored  charts,  at  ten-year  intervals,  of  the  gradual 
expansion  and  filling  in  of  population  over  the  whole  territory 
of  the  United  States.  No  romance  is  so  fascinating  as  the 

o 

thoughts  suggested  by  these  silent  sheets,  each  line  and  tint 
representing  the  unspoken  sacrifices  and  fatigues  of  thousands 
of  nameless  men  and  women.  Let  us  consider  for  a  moment 
these  successive  indications. 

In  the  map  for  1790  the  whole  population  is  on  the  eastern 
slope  of  the  Appalachian  range,  except  a  slight  spur  of  emigra- 


MAP   SHOWING   THE   MOVEMENT   OF   THE   CENTRE    OF   POPULATION   WESTWARD   ON 
THE  THIRTY-NINTH  PARALLEL. 

tion  reaching  westward  from  Pennsylvania  and  Virginia,  and  a 
detached  settlement  in  Kentucky.  The  average  depth  of  the 
strip  of  civilization,  measuring  back  from  the  Atlantic  westward, 
is  but  three  hundred  and  fifty-five  miles.  In  1800  there  is  some 
increase  of  population  within  the  old  lines,  and  a  western  move 
ment  along  the  Mohawk  in  New  York  State,  while  the  Kentucky 
group  of  inhabitants  has  spread  down  into  Tennessee.  In  1810 
all  New  York,  Pennsylvania,  and  Kentucky  are  well  sprinkled 
with  population,  which  begins  to  invade  southern  Ohio  also, 
while  the  territory  of  Orleans  has  a  share ;  although  Michigan, 
Indiana,  Illinois,  Missouri,  the  Mississippi  territory — including 
Mississippi  and  Alabama — are  still  almost  or  quite  untouched. 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  417 

In  1820  Ohio,  or  two-thirds  of  it,  shows  signs  of  civilized  occu 
pation  ;  and  the  settlements  around  Detroit,  which  so  impressed 
Darby,  have  joined  those  in  Ohio ;  Tennessee  is  well  occupied, 
as  is  southern  Indiana ;  while  Illinois,  Wisconsin,  Alabama,  have 
little  rills  of  population  adjoining  the  Indian  tribes,  which  are 
not  yet  removed,  and  still  retard  Southern  settlements.  In  1830 
— Adams's  administration  being  now  closed — Indiana  is  nearly 
covered  with  population,  Illinois  more  than  half ;  there  is  hardly 
any  unsettled  land  in  Ohio,  while  Michigan  is  beginning  to  be 
occupied.  Population  has  spread  up  the  Missouri  to  the  north 
of  Kansas  River ;  and  farther  south,  Louisiana,  Alabama,  and 
Arkansas  begin  to  show  for  something.  But  even  in  1830  the 
centre  of  population  is  in  Moorefield,  Virginia,  and  is  not  yet 
moving  westward  at  the  rate  of  more  than  five  miles  a  year. 

This  year  of  1830  lying  beyond  the  term  of  John  Ouincy 
Adams's  administration,  I  shall  here  follow  the  statistics  of  the 
great  migration  no  farther.  Turn  now  to  his  annual  message, 
and  see  how,  instead  of  the  doubts  or  cautious  hints  of  his  pre 
decessors,  these  State  papers  are  filled  with  suggestions  of  those 
special  improvements  which  an  overflowing  Treasury  enabled 
him  to  secure.  In  his  third  annual  message,  for  instance,  he 
alludes  to  reports  ready  for  Congress,  and  in  some  cases  acted 
upon,  in  respect  to  the  continuance  of  the  national  road  from 
Cumberland  eastward,  and  to  Columbus  and  St.  Louis  westward; 
other  reports  as  to  a  national  road  from  Washington  to  Buffalo, 
and  a  post-road  from  Baltimore  to  Philadelphia ;  as  to  a  canal 
from  Lake  Pontchartrain  to  the  Mississippi ;  as  to  another  to  be 
cut  across  Florida;  another  to  connect  Mobile  and  Pensacola; 
another  to  unite  the  Coosa  and  Hiwassee  rivers  in  Alabama. 
There  are  reports  also  on  Cape  Fear ;  on  the  Swash  in  Pamlico 
Sound ;  on  La  Plaisance  Bay  in  Michigan  ;  on  the  Kennebec 
and  Saugatuck  rivers  ;  on  the  harbors  of  Edgartown,  Hyannis, 
and  Newburyport.  What  has  been  already  done,  he  says,  in 
these  and  similar  directions,  has  cost  three  or  four  millions  of 

27 


41 8  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

dollars  annually,  but  it  has  been  done  without  creating  a  dollar 
of  taxes  or  debt ;  nor  has  it  diminished  the  payment  of  previous 
debts,  which  have  indeed  been  reduced  to  the  extent  of  sixteen 
millions  of  dollars  in  three  years.  But  this  was  only  a  partial 
estimate.  During  the  whole  administration  of  John  Quincy 
Adams,  according  to  the  American  Annual  Register,  more  than 
a  million  of  dollars  were  devoted  to  the  light-house  system ;  half 
a  million  to  public  buildings ;  two  millions  to  arsenals  and  ar 
mories  ;  three  millions  to  coast  fortifications ;  three  millions  to 
the  navy ;  and  four  millions  to  internal  improvements  and  scien 
tific  surveys.  Including  smaller  items,  nearly  fourteen  millions 
were  expended  under  him  for  permanent  objects,  besides  five 
millions  of  dollars  for  pensions;  a  million  and  a  half  for  the 
Indian  tribes ;  thirty  millions  for  the  reduction,  of  the  public 
debt ;  and  a  surplus  of  five  millions  for  his  successor.  Here 
was  patriotic  house -keeping  indeed  for  the  vast  family  of  the 
nation,  and  yet  this  administration  has  very  commonly  been 
passed  over  as  belonging  to  those  times  of  peace  that  have 
proverbially  but  few  historians. 

Let  us  return  to  the  actual  progress  of  the  great  western 
march.  The  Ohio  River  being  once  reached,  the  main  channel 
of  emigration  lay  in  the  watercourses.  Steamboats  as  yet  were 
but  beginning  their  invasion,  amid  the  general  dismay  and  curs 
ing  of  the  population  of  boatmen  that  had  rapidly  established 
itself  along  the  shore  of  every  river.  The  early  water  life  of 
the  Ohio  and  its  kindred  streams  was  the  very  romance  of  emi 
gration  ;  no  monotonous  agriculture,  no  toilsome  wood  -  chop 
ping,  could  keep  back  the  adventurous  boys  who  found  delight 
in  the  endless  novelty,  the  alternate  energy  and  repose  of  a 
floating  existence  on  those  delightful  waters.  The  variety  of 
river  craft  corresponded  to  the  varied  tastes  and  habits  of  the 
boatmen.  There  was  the  great  barge  with  lofty  deck,  requiring 
twenty-five  men  to  work  it  up-stream  ;  there  was  the  long  keel- 
boat,  carrying  from  fifteen  to  thirty  tons ;  there  was  the  Ken- 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  419 

tucky  "  broad-horn,"  compared  by  the  emigrants  of  that  day 
to  a  New  England  pigsty  set  afloat,  and  sometimes  built  one 
hundred  feet  long,  and  carrying  seventy  tons ;  there  was  the 
"family  boat,"  of  like  structure,  and  bearing  a  whole  household, 
with  cattle,  hogs,  horses,  and  sheep.  Other  boats  were  floating 
tin  shops,  blacksmiths'  shops,  whiskey  shops,  dry- goods  shops. 
A  few  were  propelled  by  horse-power.  Of  smaller  vessels  there 
were  "  covered  sleds,"  "  ferry  flats,"  and  "  Alleghany  skiffs  ;"  "  pi 
rogues  "  made  from  two  tree  trunks,  or  "  dug-outs  "  consisting 
of  one.  These  boats  would  set  out  from  Pittsburg  for  voy 
ages  of  all  lengths,  sometimes  extending  over  three  thousand 
miles,  and  reaching  points  on  the  Missouri,  Arkansas,  and  Red 
rivers.  Boats  came  to  St.  Louis  from  Montreal  with  but  few 
"  portages "  or  "  carries  "  on  the  way ;  and  sometimes  arrived 
from  Mackinaw,  when  the  streams  were  high  and  the  morasses 
full,  without  being  carried  by  hand  at  all. 

The  crews  were  carefully  chosen ;  a  "  Kentuck,"  or  Ken- 
tuckian,  was  considered  the  best  man  at  a  pole,  and  a  "  Ka- 
nuck,"  or  French  Canadian,  at  the  oar  or  the  "  cordelle,"  the 
rope  used  to  haul  a  boat  up-stream.  Their  talk  was  of  the  dan 
gers  of  the  river ;  of  "  planters  and  sawyers,"  meaning  tree 
trunks  embedded  more  or  less  firmly  in  the  river ;  of  "  riffles," 
meaning  ripples  ;  and  of  "  shoots,"  or  rapids  (French,  chutes).  It 
was  as  necessary  to  have  violins  on  board  as  to  have  whiskey, 
and  all  the  traditions  in  song  or  picture  of  "  the  jolly  boatmen  " 
date  back  to  that  by-gone  day.  Between  the  two  sides  of  the 
river  there  was  already  a  jealousy.  Ohio  was  called  "  the  Yan 
kee  State ;"  and  Flint  tells  us  that  it  was  a  standing  joke  among 
the  Ohio  boatmen,  when  asked  their  cargo,  to  reply,  "  Pit-coal 
indigo,  wooden  nutmegs,  straw  baskets,  and  Yankee  notions." 
The  same  authority  describes  this  sort  of  questioning  as  being 
inexhaustible  among  the  river  people,  and  asserts  that  from  one 
descending  boat  came  this  series  of  answers,  all  of  which  proved 
to  be  truthful :  "  Where  are  you  from  ?"  "  Redstone."  "  What's 


420  HISTORY  OF    THE    UNITED   STATES. 

your  lading  ?"     "  Millstones."     "  What's  your  captain's  name  ?* 
"  Whetstone."     "  Where  are  you  bound?"     "  To  Limestone." 

All  this  panorama  of  moving  life  was  brought  nearly  to  a 
close,  during  the  younger  Adams's  administration,  by  the  intro 
duction  of  steamboats,  though  it  was  prolonged  for  a  time  upon 
the  newly  built  canals.  Steamboats  were  looked  upon,  as  Flint 
tells  us,  with  "detestation"  by  the  inhabitants,  though  they  soon 
learned  to  depend  upon  them,  and  to  make  social  visits  in  them 
to  friends  a  hundred  miles  away.  In  1812  Fulton's  first  W7est- 
ern  boat,  the  Orleans,  went  down  the  Ohio,  and  in  1816  the 
Washington  proved  itself  able  to  stem  the  current  in  returning. 
But  for  a  time  canals  spread  more  rapidly  than  steamboats. 
Gouverneur  Morris  had  first  suggested  the  Erie  Canal  in 
1777,  and  Washington  had  indeed  proposed  a  system  of  such 
water-ways  in  1774.  But  the  first  actual  work  of  this  kind  in 
the  United  States  was  that  dug  around  Turner's  Falls,  in  Mas 
sachusetts,  soon  after  1792.  In  1803  De  Witt  Clinton  again 
proposed  the  Erie  Canal.  It  was  begun  in  1817,  and  opened 
July  4,  1825,  being  cut  mainly  through  a  wilderness.  The  ef 
fect  produced  on  public  opinion  was  absolutely  startling.  When 
men  found  that  the  time  from  Albany  to  Buffalo  was  reduced 
one-half,  and  that  the  freight  on  a  ton  of  merchandise  was  cut 
down  from  $100  to  $10,  and  ultimately  to  $3,  similar  enterprises 
sprang  into  being  everywhere.  The  most  conspicuous  of  these 
was  the  Chesapeake  and  Ohio  Canal,  from  Georgetown  to  Pitts- 
burg,  which  was  surveyed  and  planned  by  the  national  board 
of  internal  improvements,  created  just  before  Mr.  Adams's  acces 
sion.  On  July  4, 1828,  the  first  blow  in  the  excavation  was  struck 
by  the  President.  He  had  a  habit  of  declining  invitations  to 
agricultural  fairs  and  all  public  exhibitions,  but  was  persuaded 
to  make  a  speech  and  put  the  first  spade  in  the  ground  for  this 
great  enterprise.  The  soil  was  for  some  reason  so  hard  that 
it  would  scarcely  give  way,  so  the  President  took  off  his  coat, 
and  tried  again  and  again,  at  last  raising  the  sod,  amid  general 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  421 

applause.  It  was  almost  the  only  time  during  his  arduous  life 
when  he  paused  to  do  a  picturesque  or  symbolic  act  before  the 
people. 

Thus,  by  various  means,  the  great  wave  swept  westward. 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New  Jersey  filled  up  Ohio ; 
North  Carolina  and  Virginia  populated  Kentucky  and  Tennes 
see  ;  Canada  sent  its  emigrants  into  Illinois  and  Indiana,  and  all 
down  the  Mississippi.  The  new  settlers,  being  once  launched 
in  the  free  career  of  the  West,  developed  by  degrees  a  new  type 
of  character.  Everywhere  there  was  a  love  of  the  frontier  life, 
of  distance,  isolation,  of  "  range,"  as  the  Kentuckians  of  that 
day  called  it.  There  was  a  charming  side  to  it  all.  There  was 
no  more  fascinating  existence  anywhere  than  that  of  the  pioneer 
hunters  in  the  yet  unfelled  forests,  and  the  lasting  popularity  of 
Cooper's  novels  proves  the  permanent  spell  exercised  by  this 
life  over  the  imagination.  No  time  will  ever  diminish  the  pict- 
uresqueness  of  Daniel  Boone's  career  in  Kentucky,  for  instance, 
amid  the  exquisite  beauty  of  the  regions  near  Lexington,  \voods 
carpeted  with  turf  like  an  English  park,  free  from  underbrush, 
with  stately  trees  of  every  variety,  and  fresh,  clear  streams  every 
where  ;  or  beside  the  salt  springs  of  the  Licking  Valley,  where 
Simon  Kenton  saw  from  twenty  to  thirty  thousand  buffaloes 
congregated  at  a  time.  What  were  the  tame  adventures  of 
Robin  Hood  to  the  occasion  when  these  two  pioneer  hunters, 
Boone  and  Kenton,  approached  the  Licking  Valley,  each  alone, 
from  opposite  points,  each  pausing  to  reconnoitre  before  leaving 
the  shelter  of  the  woods,  and  each  recognizing  the  presence  of 
another  human  being  in  the  valley  ?  Then  began  a  long  series 
of  manoeuvres  on  the  part  of  each  to  discover  who  the  other 
was,  without  self-betrayal ;  and  such  was  their  skill  that  it  took 
forty-eight  hours  before  either  could  make  up  his  mind  that  the 
other  was  a  white  man  and  a  friend,  not  an  Indian  and  a  foe. 

But  there  was  to  all  this  picture  a  reverse  side  that  was  less 
charming.  For  those  who  were  not  content  to  spend  their  lives 


422  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

as  woodsmen  in  Kentucky,  and  preferred  to  seek  Ohio  as  agri 
culturists,  how  much  of  sacrifice  there  was !  what  weary  years 
of  cold,  poverty,  discomfort !  This  letter,  quoted  in  Perkins's 
"Fifty  Years  of  Ohio,"  as  written  in  1818  from  Marietta,  gives 
a  glimpse  through  the  door-way  of  a  thousand  cabins : 

"Marietta  I  find  a  poor,  muddy  hole;  the  mud  here  is  more  disagreeable 
than  snow  in  Massachusetts.  My  advice  to  all  my  friends  is  not  to  come  to 
this  country.  There  is  not  one  in  a  hundred  but  what  is  discontented;  but 
they  cannot  get  back,  having  spent  all  their  property  in  getting  here.  It  is  the 
most  broken  country  that  I  ever  saw.  Poor,  lean  pork  at  twelve  cents ;  salt, 
four  cents ;  poor,  dry  fish,  twenty  cents.  The  corn  is  miserable,  and  we  can 
not  get  it  ground;  we  have  to  pound  it.  Those  that  have  lanterns  grate  it. 
Rum,  twenty-five  cents  a  gill ;  sugar,  thirty-seven  cents  a  pound ;  and  no  molas 
ses  !  This  country  has  been  the  ruin  of  a  great  many  poor  people  ;  it  has  un 
done  a  great  many  poor  souls  forever." 

Meantime,  at  Washington,  there  had  been  a  great  increase 
in  wealth  and  social  refinement  since  the  earlier  days.  Mr. 
Josiah  Quincy,  in  his  "  Recollections  of  Washington  Society 
in  1826,"  presents  for  us  a  polished  and  delightful  community, 
compared  to  that  which  had  preceded  it.  Himself  a  handsome 
young  Bostonian,  with  the  prestige  of  a  name  already  noted,  he 
found  nothing  but  sunshine  and  roses  in  his  path  through  the 
metropolis.  Names  now  historic  glitter  through  his  pages ;  he 
went  to  balls  under  the  escort  of  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Daniel  Webster; 
his  first  entertainment  was  at  Mrs.  William  Wirt's,  where  he 
met  Miss  Henry,  Patrick  Henry's  daughter,  who  played  the 
piano  and  sang  to  the  harp.  The  belles  of  the  day  smiled  upon 
him:  Miss  Catherine  van  Rensselaer,  of  Albany,  and  Miss  Cora 
Livingston,  the  same  who  in  her  old  age,  as  Mrs.  Barton,  sold 
the  great  Shakespearian  library  to  the  city  of  Boston.  The 
most  conspicuous  married  belle  of  that  day  was  known  as  Mrs. 
Florida  White,  so  called  because  her  husband  represented  that 
region,  then  new  and  strange.  More  eccentric  than  this  sobri 
quet  were  the  genuine  names  in  the  household  of  Mrs.  Peter, 
granddaughter  of  Mrs.  Washington,  and  the  fiercest  of  Feder- 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  423 

alists,  who  had  named  her  daughters  America,  Columbia,  and 
Britannia — the  last  by  way  of  defiance,  it  was  said,  to  Jefferson. 
With  these  various  charmers  Mr.  Quincy  attended  many  a  ball 
in  Washington,  these  entertainments  then  keeping  modest  hours 
— from  eight  to  eleven.  He  saw  a  sight  not  then  considered  so 
modest — the  introduction,  in  1826,  of  the  first  waltz,  danced  with 
enthusiasm  by  Baron  Stackelburg,  who  whirled  through  it  with 
out  removing  his  huge  dragoon  spurs,  and  was  applauded  at  the 
end  for  the  skill  with  which  he  avoided  collisions  that  might 
have  been  rather  murderous. 

The  young  Bostonian  also  went  to  dinner-parties;  some 
times  at  the  White  House,  either  formal  state  dinners  of  forty 
gentlemen  and  ladies,  or  private  occasions,  less  elaborate,  where 
he  alone  among  witnesses  found  the  President  "  amusing."  He 
gives  also  an  agreeable  picture  of  the  home  and  household  man 
ners  of  Daniel  Webster,  not  yet  fallen  into  those  questionable 
private  habits  which  the  French  M.  Bacourt,  sixteen  years  after 
wards,  too  faithfully  chronicled.  Mr.  Quincy  also  found  the 
Vice-president,  John  C.  Calhoun,  a  man  most  agreeable  in  his 
own  house,  while  Miss  Calhoun  had  an  admirable  gift  for  polit 
ical  discussion.  The  presence  of  these  eminent  men  lent  a 
charm  even  to  the  muddy  streets  and  scattered  houses  of  the 
Washington  of  that  day.  The  two  branches  of  government 
then  met  in  small,  ill-arranged  halls,  the  House  of  Representa 
tives  having  huge  pillars  to  intercept  sight  and  sound,  with  no 
gallery  for  visitors,  but  only  a  platform  but  little  higher  than 
the  floor.  In  this  body  the  great  Federal  party  had  left  scarcely 
a  remnant  of  itself,  Mr.  Elisha  Potter,  of  Rhode  Island,  describ 
ing  vividly  to  Mr.  Quincy  a  caucus  held  when  the  faithful  few 
had  been  reduced  to  eleven,  and  could  only  cheer  themselves 
with  the  thought  that  the  Christian  apostles,  after  the  desertion 
of  Judas,  could  number  no  more.  The  Houses  of  Congress 
were  still  rather  an  arena  of  debating  than  for  set  speeches,  as 
now;  and  they  had  their  leaders,  mostly  now  fallen  into  that 


424  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

oblivion  which  waits  so  surely  on  merely  political  fame.  Daniel 
Webster,  to  be  sure,  was  the  great  ornament  of  the  Senate ;  but 
McDuffie,  of  South  Carolina,  and  Storrs,  of  New  York,  members 
of  the  House,  had  then  a  national  reputation  for  eloquence, 
though  they  now  are  but  the  shadows  of  names.  To  these 
must  be  added  Archer,  of  Virginia,  too  generally  designated  as 
"  Insatiate  Archer,"  from  his  fatal  long-windedness. 

For  the  first  time  in  many  years  the  White  House  was 
kept  in  decent  order  again ;  all  about  it  had  for  years — if  we 
may  trust  Samuel  Breck's  testimony — worn  the  slipshod,  care 
less  look  of  a  Virginia  plantation.  Fence -posts  fell  and  lay 
broken  on  the  ground  for  months,  although  they  could  have 
been  repaired  in  half  an  hour ;  and  the  grass  of  the  lawns,  cut  at 
long  intervals,  was  piled  in  large  stacks  before  the  drawing-room 
windows.  Fifty  thousand  dollars  spent  on  the  interior  in  Mon 
roe's  time  had  produced  only  a  slovenly  splendor,  while  the 
fourteen  thousand  appropriated  to  Adams  produced  neatness  at 
least.  Manners  shared  some  of  the  improvement,  in  respect  to 
order  and  decorum  at  least,  though  something  of  the  profuse 
Virginia  cordiality  may  have  been  absent.  It  was  an  inter 
mediate  period,  when,  far  more  than  now,  the  European  forms 
were  being  tried,  and  sometimes  found  wanting.  In  Philadel 
phia,  where  the  social  ambition  was  highest,  Mr.  William  Bing- 
ham  had  entertainments  that  were  held  to  be  the  most  showy 
in  America.  He  had,  as  in  England,  a  row  of  liveried  servants, 
who  repeated  in  loud  tone,  from  one  to  another,  the  name  of 
every  guest.  A  slight  circumstance  put  an  end  to  the  practice. 
On  the  evening  of  a  ball  an  eminent  physician,  Dr.  Kuhn,  drove 
to  the  door  with  his  step -daughter,  and  was  asked  his  name 
by  the  lackey.  "  The  doctor  and  Miss  Peggy,"  was  the  reply. 
"  The  doctor  and  Miss  Peggy,"  was  echoed  by  the  man  at  the 
door,  and  hence  by  successive  stages  to  the  drawing-room. 
"The  doctor  and  Miss  Peggy"  (Miss  Markoe,  afterwards  Mrs. 
Benjamin  Franklin  Bache)  became  the  joke  of  the  town  ;  and 


JOHN    C.  CALHOUN. 
[From  the  painting  by  De  Block,  owned  by  John  C.  Calhoun,  Esq.] 


THE   GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  427 

the  practice  was  soon  after  changed,  carrying  with  it  the  hum 
bler  attempts  at  imitation  in  Washington.  Samuel  Breck,  who 
tells  the  story,  rejoices  that  among  the  other  failures  in  aping 
foreign  manners  were  "  the  repeated  attempts  of  our  young 
dandies  to  introduce  the  mustache  on  the  upper  lip."  "  And 
so,"  he  adds,  "  with  the  broadcloth  gaiters  and  other  foreign  cos 
tumes.  They  were  neither  useful  nor  ornamental,  and  would 
not  take  with  us.  So  much  the  better." 

The  President  himself,  in  the  midst  of  all  this,  lived  a  life 
so  simple  that  the  word  Spartan  hardly  describes  it.  He  was 
now  sixty  years  old.  Rising  at  four  or  five,  even  in  winter,  he 
often  built  his  own  fire,  and  then  worked  upon  his  correspond 
ence  and  his  journal,  while  the  main  part  of  the  day  was  given 
to  public  affairs,  these  being  reluctantly  interrupted  to  receive 
a  stream  of  visitors.  In  the  evening  he  wrorked  again,  some 
times  going  to  bed  at  eight  or  nine  even  in  summer.  His  rec 
reations  were  few — bathing  in  the  Potomac  before  sunrise,  and 
taking  a  walk  at  the  same  hour,  or  a  ride  later  in  the  day,  or 
sometimes  the  theatre,  such  as  it  was.  For  social  life  he  had 
little  aptitude,  though  he  went  through  the  forms  of  it.  This  is 
well  illustrated  by  one  singular  memorandum  in  his  diary :  "  I 
went  out  this  evening  in  search  of  conversation,  an  art  of  which 
I  never  had  an  adequate  idea.  ...  I  never  knew  how  to  make, 
control,  or  change  it.  I  am  by  nature  a  silent  animal,  and  my 
dear  mother's  constant  lesson  in  childhood  that  little  children 
should  be  seen  and  not  heard  confirmed  me  in  what  I  now 
think  a  bad  habit." 

It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  influence  of  political  wire-pull 
ing  first  began  to  be  seriously  felt  at  this  period.  We  com 
monly  attribute  its  origin  to  Jackson,  but  it  really  began,  as  was 
explained  in  a  previous  chapter,  with  Crawford.  As  the  end 
of  Monroe's  administration  drew  near,  there  were,  it  must  be 
remembered,  five  candidates  in  the  field  for  the  succession — 
Crawford,  Clay,  Calhoun,  Adams,  and  Jackson.  Calhoun  with- 


428  HISTORY  OF    THE   UNITED  STATES. 

drew,  was  nominated  for  Vice-president,  and  was  triumphantly 
elected ;  but  for  President  there  was  no  choice.  Jackson  had 
99  electoral  votes,  Adams  84,  Crawford  41,  Clay  37.  The  choice 
was  thrown  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  and  took  place 
February  9,  1825.  Two  distinguished  men  were  tellers,  Daniel 
Webster  and  John  Randolph.  They  reported  that  Mr.  Adams 
had  13  votes,  General  Jackson  7,  Mr.  Crawford  4;  and  that  Mr. 
Adams  was  therefore  elected.  The  explanation  was  that  Mr. 
Clay's  forces  had  been  transferred  to  Mr.  Adams,  and  when, 
after  his  inauguration,  Mr.  Clay  was  made  Secretary  of  State, 
the  cry  of  "unholy  coalition"  was  overwhelming.  It  was,  John 
Randolph  said,  "  a  combination  hitherto  unheard  of,  of  the 
Puritan  and  the  Blackleg — of  Blifil  and  Black  George" — these 
being  two  characters  in  Fielding's  "  Tom  Jones."  This  led  to 
a  duel  between  Clay  and  Randolph,  in  which  neither  party  fell. 
But  the  charge  remained.  Jackson  and  Calhoun  believed  it 
during  their  whole  lives,  though  the  publication  of  John  Ouincy 
Adams's  "Diary"  has  made  it  clear  that  there  was  no  real 
foundation  for  it. 

The  influence,  since  called  "  the  machine,"  in  politics  was 
systematically  brought  to  bear  against  Mr.  Adams  during  all 
the  latter  part  of  his  administration.  Having  the  reluctance 
of  a  high-minded  statesman  to  win  support  by  using  patron 
age  for  it,  he  unluckily  had  not  that  better  quality  which  en 
ables  a  warm-hearted  man  to  secure  loyal  aid  without  raising 
a  finger.  The  power  that  he  thus  refused  to  employ  was 
simply  used  against  him  by  his  own  subordinates.  We  know 
by  the  unerring  evidence  of  his  own  diary  that  he  saw  clearly 
how  his  own  rectitude  was  injuring  him,  yet  never  thought 
of  swerving  from  his  course.  One  by  one  the  men  depend 
ent  on  him  went  over,  beneath  his  eyes,  to  the  camp  of  his 
rival ;  and  yet  so  long  as  each  man  was  a  good  officer  he 
was  left  untouched.  Mr.  Adams  says  in  his  "Diary"  (under 
date  of  May  13,  1825),  when  describing  his  own  entrance  on 


THE  GREAT  WESTERN  MARCH.  429 

office  :  "  Of  the  custom-house  officers  throughout  the  Union 
two-thirds  were  probably  opposed  to  my  election.  They  were 
all  now  in  my  power,  and  I  had  been  urged  very  earnestly  from 
various  quarters  to  sweep  away  my  opponents,  and  provide  with 
their  places  for  my  friends."  This  was  what  he  absolutely  re 
fused  to  do.  In  these  days  of  civil  service  reform  we  go  back 
with  pleasure  to  his  example ;  but  the  general  verdict  of  the 
period  was  that  this  course  may  have  been  very  heroic,  but  it 
was  not  war. 

It  must  always  be  remembered,  moreover,  in  our  effort  to 
understand  the  excitement  of  politics  fifty  years  ago,  that  the 
Presidential  candidates  were  then  nominated  by  Congressional 
caucus.  The  effect  was  to  concentrate  in  one  spot  the  excite 
ment  and  the  intrigues  that  must  now  be  distributed  through 
the  nation.  The  result  was  almost  wholly  evil.  "  It  places  the 
President,"  John  Quincy  Adams  wrote  just  before  his  election, 
"  in  a  state  of  subserviency  to  the  members  of  the  Legislature, 
which  .  .  .  leads  to  a  thousand  corrupt  cabals  between  the  mem 
bers  of  Congress  and  heads  of  departments.  .  .  .  The  only  possi 
ble  chance  for  a  head  of  a  department  to  attain  the  Presidency 
is  by  ingratiating  himself  with  the  members  of  Congress."  The 
result  was  that  these  Congressmen  practically  selected  the  Pres 
ident.  For  political  purposes,  Washington  was  the  focus  of  all 
that  political  agitation  now  distributed  over  various  cities;  it 
was  New  York,  Cincinnati,  Chicago,  all  in  one.  It  was  in  a 
centre  of  politics  like  this,  not  in  the  present  more  metropolitan 
Washington,  that  John  Quincy  Adams  stood  impassive — the 
object  of  malice,  of  jealousy,  of  envy,  of  respect,  and  perhaps 
sometimes  even  of  love. 

He  was  that  most  unfortunate  personage,  an  accidental  Pres 
ident —  one  chosen  not  by  a  majority  or  even  a  plurality  of 
popular  or  electoral  votes,  but  only  by  the  process  reluctantly 
employed  in  case  these  votes  yield  no  choice.  The  popular 
feeling  of  the  nation,  by  a  plurality  at  least,  had  demanded  the 


430  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

military  favorite,  Jackson;  and  through  the  four  years  of  Adams's 
respectable  but  rather  colorless  administration  it  still  persisted 
in  this  demand.  The  grave,  undemonstrative  President,  not 
rewarding  his  friends,  if  indeed  he  had  friends,  had  little  chance 
against  the  popular  favorite ;  his  faults  hindered  him ;  his  very 
virtues  hindered  him ;  and  though  he  was  not,  like  his  father, 
defeated  squarely  on  a  clear  political  issue,  he  was  defeated  still. 
With  him  we  leave  behind  the  trained  statesmen-Presidents  of 
the  early  period,  and  pass  to  the  untrained,  untamed,  vigorous 
personality  of  Andrew  Jackson. 


XVIII 

OLD 


DR.  VON  HOLST,  the  most  philosophic  of  historians, 
when  he  passes  from  the  period  of  John  Quincy  Adams 
to  that  of  his  successor,  is  reluctantly  compelled  to  leave  the 
realm  of  pure  history  for  that  of  biography,  and  to  entitle  a 
chapter  "  The  Reign  of  Andrew  Jackson."  This  change  of 
treatment  could,  indeed,  hardly  be  helped.  Under  Adams  all 
was  impersonal,  methodical,  a  government  of  laws  and  not  of 
men.  With  an  individuality  quite  as  strong  as  that  of  Jackson 
—  as  the  whole  nation  learned  ere  his  life  ended  —  it  had  yet 
been  the  training  of  his  earlier  career  to  suppress  himself  and 
be  simply  a  perfect  official.  His  policy  aided  the  vast  progress 
of  the  nation,  but  won  for  him  no  credit  by  the  process.  Men 
saw  with  wonder  the  westward  march  of  an  expanding  people, 
but  forgot  to  notice  the  sedate,  passionless,  orderly  administra 
tion  that  held  the  door  open  and  kept  the  peace  for  all.  In 
studying  the  time  of  Adams,  we  think  of  the  nation  ;  in  observ 
ing  that  of  Jackson,  we  think  of  Jackson  himself.  In  him  we 
see  the  first  popular  favorite  of  a  people  now  well  out  of  lead 
ing-strings,  and  particularly  bent  on  going  alone.  By  so  much 
as  he  differed  from  Adams,  by  so  much  the.  nation  liked  him 
better.  His  conquests  had  been  those  of  war  —  always  more  daz 
zling  than  those  of  peace  ;  his  temperament  w^as  of  fire  —  always 
more  attractive  than  one  of  marble.  He  was  helped  by  what  he 
had  done,  and  by  what  he  had  not  done.  Even  his  absence  of 


432  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

diplomatic  training  was  almost  counted  for  a  virtue,  because 
all  this  training  was  then  necessarily  European,  and  the  demand 
had  ripened  for  a  purely  American  product. 

It  had  been  quite  essential  to  the  self-respect  of  the  new 
republic,  at  the  outset,  that  it  should  have  at  its  head  men  who 
had  as  diplomatists  coped  with  European  statesmen  and  not 
been  discomfited.  This  was  the  case  with  each  of  the  early 
successors  of  Washington,  and  in  view  of  Washington's  manifest 
superiority  this  advantage  had  not  been  needed.  Perhaps  it  was 
in  a  different  way  a  sign  of  self-respect  that  the  new  republic 
should  at  last  turn  from  this  tradition,  and  take  boldly  from  the 
ranks  a  strong  and  ill-trained  leader,  to  whom  all  European  pre 
cedent — and,  indeed,  all  other  precedent — counted  for  nothing. 
In  Jackson,  moreover,  there  first  appeared  upon  our  national 
stage  the  since  familiar  figure  of  the  self-made  man.  Other 
Presidents  had  sprung  from  a  modest  origin,  but  nobody  had 
made  an  especial  point  of  it.  Nobody  had  urged  Washington 
for  office  because  he  had  been  a  surveyor's  lad ;  nobody  had 
voted  for  Adams  merely  because  stately  old  ladies  designated 
him  as  "  that  cobbler's  son."  But  when  Jackson  came  into  of 
fice  the  people  had  just  had  almost  a  surfeit  of  regular  training 
in  their  Chief  Magistrates.  There  was  a  certain  zest  in  the 
thought  of  a  change,  and  the  nation  had  it. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  Jackson  was  in  many  ways  far 
above  the  successive  modern  imitators  who  have  posed  in  his 
image.  He  was  narrow,  ignorant,  violent,  unreasonable  ;  he 
punished  his  enemies  and  rewarded  his  friends.  But  he  was, 
on  the  other  hand — and  his  worst  opponents  hardly  denied  it — 
honest,  truthful,  and  sincere.  It  was  not  commonly  charged 
upon  him  that  he  enriched  himself  at  the  public  expense,  or 
that  he  deliberately  invented  falsehoods.  And  as  he  was  for  a 
time  more  bitterly  hated  than  any  one  who  ever  occupied  his 
high  office,  we  may  be  very  sure  that  these  things  would  have 
been  charged  on  him,  had  it  been  possible.  In  this  respect 


-OLD  HICKORY:-  433 

the  contrast  was  enormous  between  Jackson  and  his  imitators, 
and  it  explains  his  prolonged  influence.  He  never  was  found 
out  or  exposed  before  the  world,  because  there  was  nothing  to 
detect  or  unveil ;  his  merits  and  demerits  were  as  visible  as  his 
long,  narrow,  firmly  set  features,  or  as  the  old  military  stock  that 
encircled  his  neck.  There  he  was,  always  fully  revealed ;  every 
body  could  see  him ;  the  people  might  take  him  or  leave  him — 
and  they  never  left  him. 

Moreover,  there  was,  after  the  eight  years  of  Monroe  and  the 
four  years  of  Adams,  an  immense  popular  demand  for  some 
thing  piquant  and  even  amusing,  and  this  quality  men  always 
found  in  Jackson.  There  was  nothing  in  the  least  melodra 
matic  about  him;  he  never  posed  or  attitudinized  —  it  would 
have  required  too  much  patience ;  but  he  was  always  piquant. 
There  was  formerly  a  good  deal  of  discussion  as  to  who  wrote 
the  once  famous  "Jack  Downing  "  letters,  but  we  might  almost 
say  that  they  wrote  themselves.  Nobody  was  ever  less  of  a 
humorist  than  Andrew  Jackson,  and  it  was  therefore  the  more 
essential  that  he  should  be  the  cause  of  humor  in  others.  It 
was  simply  inevitable  that  during  his  progresses  through  the 
country  there  should  be  some  amusing  shadow  evoked,  some 
Yankee  parody  of  the  man,  such  as  came  from  two  or  three 
quarters  under  the  name  of  Jack  Downing.  The  various  rec 
ords  of  Monroe's  famous  tours  are  as  tame  as  the  speeches 
which  these  expeditions  brought  forth,  and  John  Quincy  Adams 
never  made  any  popular  demonstrations  to  chronicle ;  but  wher 
ever  Jackson  went  there  went  the  other  Jack,  the  crude  first- 
fruits  of  what  is  now  known  through  the  world  as  "  American 
humors."  Jack  Downing  was  Mark  Twain  and  Hosea  Biglow 
and  Artemus  Ward  in  one.  The  impetuous  President  enraged 
many  and  delighted  many,  but  it  is  something  to  know  that 
under  him  a  serious  people  first  found  that  it  knew  how  to 
laugh. 

The  very  extreme,  the  perfectly  needless  extreme,  of  political 

28 


434  HISTORY  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES. 

foreboding  that  marked  the  advent  of  Jackson  furnished  a  back 
ground  of  lurid  solemnity  for  all  this  light  comedy.  Samuel 
Breck  records  in  his  diary  that  he  conversed  with  Daniel  Web 
ster  in  Philadelphia,  March  24,  1827,  upon  the  prospects  of  the 
government.  "  Sir,"  said  Mr.  Webster,  "  if  General  Jackson  is 
elected,  the  government  of  our  country  will  be  overthrown ;  the 
judiciary  wall  be  destroyed;  Mr.  Justice  Johnson  will  be  made 
Chief-justice  in  the  room  of  Mr.  Marshall,  wrho  must  soon  retire, 
and  then  in  half  an  hour  Mr.  Justice  Washington  and  Mr.  Jus 
tice  Story  will  resign.  A  majority  will  be  left  with  Mr.  John 
son,  and  every  constitutional  decision  hitherto  made  will  be 
reversed."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  none  of  these  results  followed. 
Mr.  Justice  Johnson  never  became  Chief-justice;  Mr.  Marshall 
retained  that  office  till  his  death  in  1835;  Story  and  Washing 
ton  also  died  in  office  ;  the  judiciary  \vas  not  overthrown  or 
the  government  destroyed.  But  the  very  ecstasy  of  these  fears 
stimulated  the  excitement  of  the  public  mind.  No  matter  how 
extravagant  the  supporters  of  Jackson  might  be,  they  could 
hardly  go  farther  in  that  direction  than  did  the  Websters  in  the 
other. 

But  it  was  not  the  fault  of  the  Jackson  party  if  anybody  wrent 
beyond  them  in  exaggeration.  An  English  traveller,  William 
E.  Alexander,  going  in  a  stage-coach  from  Baltimore  to  Wash 
ington  in  1831,  records  the  exuberant  conversation  of  six  editors, 
with  whom  he  w^as  shut  up  for  hours.  "  The  gentlemen  of  the 
press,"  he  says,  "  talked  of  '  going  the  whole  hog '  for  one  anoth 
er,  of  being  '  up  to  the  hub '  (nave)  for  General  Jackson,  who  was 
'  all  brimstone  but  the  head,  and  that  was  aqua-fortis,'  and  swore 
if  any  one  abused  him  he  ought  to  be  '  set  straddle  on  an  ice 
berg,  and  shot  through  with  a  streak  of  lightning.' ':  Some 
where  between  the  dignified  despair  of  Daniel  Webster  and  the 
adulatory  slang  of  these  gentry  wre  must  look  for  the  actual 
truth  about  Jackson's  administration.  The  fears  of  the  states 
man  were  not  wholly  groundless,  for  it  is  always  hard  to  count 


ANDREW  JACKSON. 
[Engraved  by  G.  Kruell  from  the  lithograph  by  La  Fosse,  copyrighted  by  M.  Knoedler  &  Co.] 


"OLD  HICKORY:'  437 

in  advance  upon  the  tendency  of  high  office  to  make  men  more 
reasonable.  The  enthusiasm  of  the  journalists  had  a  certain 
foundation  ;  at  any  rate  it  was  a  part  of  their  profession  to  like 
stirring  times,  and  they  had  now  the  promise  of  them.  After 
twelve  years  of  tolerably  monotonous  government,  any  party  of 
editors  in  America,  assembled  in  a  stage-coach,  would  have 
showered  epithets  of  endearment  on  the  man  who  gave  such 
promise  in  the  way  of  lively  items.  No  acute  journalist  could 
help  seeing  that  a  man  had  a  career  before  him  who  was  called 
"Old  Hickory"  by  three-quarters  of  the  nation;  and  who  made 
"  Hurrah  for  Jackson  !"  a  cry  so  potent  that  it  had  the  force  of 
a  popular  decree. 

There  was,  indeed,  unbounded  room  for  popular  enthusiasm 
in  the  review  of  Jackson's  early  career.  Born  in  such  obscurity 
that  it  is  doubtful  to  this  day  whether  that  event  took  place  in 
South  Carolina,  as  he  himself  claimed,  or  on  the  North  Carolina 
side  of  the  line,  as  Mr.  Parton  thinks,  he  had  a  childhood  of 
poverty  and  ignorance.  He  was  taken  prisoner  as  a  mere  boy 
during  the  Revolution,  and  could  never  forget  that  he  had  been 
wounded  by  a  British  officer  whose  boots  he  had  refused  to 
brush.  Afterwards,  in  a  frontier  community,  he  was  successively 
farmer,  shopkeeper,  law  student,  lawyer,  district  attorney,  judge, 
and  Congressman,  being  first  Representative  from  Tennessee, 
and  then  Senator  —  and  all  before  the  age  of  thirty-one.  In 
Congress  Albert  Gallatin  describes  him  as  "  a  tall,  lank,  uncouth- 
looking  personage,  with  long  locks  of  hair  hanging  over  his 
brows  and  face,  and  a  queue  down  his  back  tied  in  an  eel-skin ; 
his  dress  singular,  his  manners  and  deportment  those  of  a  back 
woodsman."  He  remained,  however,  but  a  year  or  two  in  all  at 
Philadelphia — then  the  seat  of  national  government — and  after 
wards  became  a  planter  in  Tennessee,  fought  duels,  subdued 
Tecumseh  and  the  Creek  Indians,  winning  finally  the  great 
opportunity  of  his  life  by  being  made  a  major-general  in  the 
United  States  army  on  May  31,  1814.  He  now  had  his  old 


438  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

captors,  the  British,  with  whom  to  deal,  and  he  entered  into  the 
work  with  a  relish.  By  way  of  preliminary  he  took  Pensacola, 
without  any  definite  authority,  from  the  Spaniards,  to  whom  it 
belonged,  and  from  the  English  whom  they  harbored  ;  and  then 
turned,  without  orders,  without  support,  and  without  supplies, 
to  undertake  the  defence  of  New  Orleans. 

Important  as  was  this  city,  and  plain  as  it  was  that  the 
British  threatened  it,  the  national  authorities  had  done  nothing 
to  defend  it.  The  impression  prevailed  at  Washington  that  it 
must  already  have  been  taken,  but  that  the  President  would  not 
let  it  be  known.  The  Washington  Republican  of  January  17, 
1815,  said,  "That  Mr.  Madison  will  find  it  convenient  and  will- 
finally  determine  to  abandon  the  State  of  Louisiana  we  have 
not  a  doubt."  A  New  York  newspaper  of  January  3oth,  three 
weeks  after  New  Orleans  had  been  saved,  said,  "  It  is  the  gen 
eral  opinion  here  that  the  city  of  New  Orleans  must  fall."  Ap 
parently  but  one  thing  had  averted  its  fall — the  energy  and  will 
of  Andrew  Jackson.  On  his  own  responsibility  he  declared 
martial  law,  impressed  soldiers,  seized  powder  and  supplies,  built 
fortifications  of  cotton  bales,  if  nothing  else  came  to  hand. 
When  the  news  of  the  battle  of  New  Orleans  came  to  the  seat 
of  government  it  was  almost  too  bewildering  for  belief.  The 
British  veterans  of  the  Peninsula  war,  whose  march  wherever 
they  had  landed  had  heretofore  seemed  a  holiday  parade,  were 
repulsed  in  a  manner  so  astounding  that  their  loss,  in  killed  and 
wounded,  was  more  than  two  thousand,  while  that  of  the  Ameri 
cans  was  but  thirteen  (January  8,  1815).  By  a  single  stroke  the 
national  self-respect  was  restored;  and  Henry  Clay,  at  Paris, 
said,  "  Now  I  can  go  to  England  without  mortification." 

All  these  things  must  be  taken  into  account  in  estimating 
what  Dr.  Von  Hoist  calls  "  the  reign  of  Andrew  Jackson."  Af 
ter  this  climax  of  military  success  he  was  for  a  time  employed 
on  frontier  service,  again  went  to  Florida  to  fight  Englishmen 
and  Spaniards,  practically  conquering  that  region  in  a  few 


-OLD  HICKORY  r  439 

months,  but  this  time  with  an  overwhelming  force.  Already 
his  impetuosity  had  proved  to  have  a  troublesome  side  to  it; 
he  had  violated  neutral  territory,  had  hung  two  Indians  without 
justification,  and  had  put  to  death,  with  no  authority,  two  Eng 
lishmen,  Ambrister  and  Arbuthnot.  These  irregularities  did 
not  harm  him  in  the  judgment  of  his  admirers;  they  seemed  in 
the  line  of  his  character,  and  helped  more  than  they  hurt  him. 
In  the  winter  of  1823-24  he  was  again  chosen  a  Senator  from 
Tennessee.  Thenceforth  he  was  in  the  field  as  a  candidate  for 
the  Presidency,  with  two  things  to  aid  him — his  own  immense 
popularity  and  a  skilful  friend.  This  friend  was  one  William 
B.  Lewis,  a  man  in  whom  all  the  arts  of  the  modern  wire-puller 
seemed  to  be  born  full-grown. 

There  was  at  that  time  (1824)  no  real  division  in  parties. 
The  Federalists  had  been  effectually  put  down,  and  every  man 
who  aspired  to  office  claimed  to  be  Democratic- Republican. 
Nominations  were  irregularly  made,  sometimes  by  a  Congres 
sional  caucus,  sometimes  by  State  Legislatures.  Tennessee,  and 
afterwards  Pennsylvania,  nominated  Jackson.  When  it  came  to 
the  election,  he  proved  to  be  by  all  odds  the  popular  candidate. 
Professor  W.  G.  Sumner,  counting  up  the  vote  of  the  people, 
finds  155,800  votes  for  Jackson,  105,300  for  Adams,  44,200  for 
Crawford,  46,000  for  Clay.  Even  with  this  strong  popular  vote 
before  it,  the  House  of  Representatives,  balloting  by  States, 
elected,  as  has  been  seen,  John  Quincy  Adams.  Seldom  in  our 
history  has  the  cup  of  power  come  so  near  to  the  lips  of  a  can 
didate  and  been  dashed  away  again.  Yet  nothing  is  surer  in  a 
republic  than  a  certain  swing  of  the  pendulum,  afterwards,  in  fa 
vor  of  any  candidate  to  whom  a  special  injustice  has  been  done ; 
and  in  the  case  of  a  popular  favorite  like  Jackson  this  /recoil 
might  have  been  foreseen  to  be  irresistible.  His  election  four 
years  later  was  almost  a  foregone  conclusion,  but,  as  if  to  make 
it  wholly  sure,  there  came  up  the  rumor  of  a  "  corrupt  bargain  " 
between  the  successful  candidate  and  Mr.  Clay,  whose  forces 


440  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

had  indeed  joined  with  those  of  Mr.  Adams  to  make  a  majority. 
For  General  Jackson  there  could  be  nothing  more  fortunate. 
The  mere  ghost  of  a  corrupt  bargain  is  worth  many  thousand 
votes  to  the  lucky  man  whose  supporters  conjure  up  the  ghost. 

When  it  came  the  turn  of  the  Adams  party  to  be  defeated, 
in  1828,  they  attributed  this  result  partly  to  the  depravity  of  the 
human  heart,  partly  to  the  tricks  of  Jackson,  and  partly  to  the 
unfortunate  temperament  of  Mr.  Adams.  The  day  after  a  can 
didate  is  beaten  everybody  knows  why  it  was,  and  says  it  was 
just  what  any  one  might  have  foreseen.  Ezekiel  Webster,  writ 
ing  from  New  Hampshire,  laid  the  result  chiefly  on  the  nominee, 
whom  everybody  disliked,  and  who  would  persist  in  leaving  his 
bitter  opponents  in  office.  The  people,  Webster  said,  "  always 
supported  his  cause  from  a  cold  sense  of  duty,  and  not  from  any 
liking  of  the  man.  We  soon  satisfy  ourselves,"  he  added,  "  that 
we  have  discharged  our  duty  to  the  cause  of  any  man  when  we 
do  not  entertain  for  him  one  personal  kind  feeling,  nor  cannot, 
unless  we  disembowel  ourselves,  like  a  trussed  turkey,  of  all  that 
is  human  within  us."  There  is,  indeed,  no  doubt  that  Mr. 
Adams  helped  on  his  own  defeat,  both  by  his  defects  and  by 
what  would  now  be  considered  his  virtues.  The  trouble,  how 
ever,  lay  further  back.  Ezekiel  Webster  thought  that  "  if  there 
had  been  at  the  head  of  affairs  a  man  of  popular  character,  like 
Mr.  Clay,  or  any  man  whom  we  were  not  compelled  by  our  nat 
ures,  instinct,  and  fixed  fate  to  dislike,  the  result  would  have 
been  different."  But  we  can  now  see  that  all  this  would  really 
have  made  no  difference  at  all.  Had  Mr.  Adams  been  person 
ally  the  most  attractive  of  men,  instead  of  being  a  conscientious 
iceberg,  the  same  result  would  have  followed,  and  the  people 
would  have  felt  that  Jackson's  turn  had  come. 

Accordingly,  the  next  election,  that  of  1828,  was  easily  set 
tled.  Jackson  had  178  electoral  votes,  Adams  but  83; — more 
than  two  to  one.  Adams  had  not  an  electoral  vote  south  of  the 
Potomac  or  west  of  the  Alleghanies,  though  Daniel  Webster, 


-OLD  HICKORY:1  441 

writing  to  Jeremiah  Mason,  had  predicted  that  he  would  carry 
six  Western  and  Southern  States.  In  Georgia  no  Adams  ticket 
was  even  nominated,  he  being  there  unpopular  for  one  of  his 
best  acts — the  protection  of  the  Cherokees.  On  the  other  hand, 
but  one  Jackson  elector  was  chosen  from  New  England,  and  he 
by  less  than  two  hundred  majority.  This  was  in  the  Maine  dis 
trict  that  included  Bowdoin  College,  and  I  have  heard  from  an 
old  friend  of  mine  the  tale  how  he,  being  then  a  student  at  Bow 
doin,  tolled  the  college  bell  at  midnight  to  express  the  shame  of 
the  students,  although  the  elector  thus  chosen  (Judge  Preble) 
was  the  own  uncle  of  this  volunteer  sexton.  It  would  have  re 
quired  many  college  bells  to  announce  the  general  wrath  of 
New  England,  which  was  not  diminished  by  the  fact  that  Mr. 
Calhoun,  another  Southerner,  was  chosen  Vice-president  over 
Richard  Rush.  To  be  sure,  Mr.  Calhoun  had  filled  the  same 
office  under  John  Quincy  Adams,  but  then  there  was  a  North 
ern  man  for  President.  For  the  first  time  the  lines  seemed  dis 
tinctly  drawn  for  the  coming  sectional  antagonism. 

But  even  this  important  fact  was  really  quite  subordinate, 
for  the  time  being,  in  men's  minds.  The  opposition  to  Jackson, 
like  his  popularity,  was  personal.  It  was  not  a  mere  party  mat 
ter.  The  older  statesmen  distrusted  him,  without  much  regard 
to  their  political  opinions.  When  Monroe  asked  Jefferson  in 
1818  if  it  would  not  be  well  to  give  Jackson  the  embassy  to 
Russia,  Jefferson  utterly  disapproved  it.  "  He  would  breed  you 
a  quarrel,"  he  said,  "  before  he  had  been  there  a  month."  At  a 
later  period  Jefferson  said  to  Daniel  Webster:  "I  feel  much 
alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  seeing  General  Jackson  President. 
He  is  one  of  the  most  unfit  men  I  know  of  for  such  a  place. 
He  has  had  very  little  respect  for  laws  or  constitutions,  and  is, 
in  fact,  an  able  military  chief.  His  passions  are  terrible.  When 
I  was  President  of  the  Senate  he  was  a  Senator,  and  he  could 
never  speak  on  account  of  the  rashness  of  his  feelings.  I  have 
seen  him  attempt  it  repeatedly,  and  as  often  choke  with  rage. 


442  HISTORY  OF   THE  UNITED  STATES. 

His  passions  are  no  doubt  cooler  now ;  he  has  been  much  tried 
since  I  knew  him ;  but  he  is  a  dangerous  man."  And  danger 
ous  indeed  the  public  office-holders  soon  found  him.  As  has 
been  already  seen,  a  large  part  of  those  who  held  office  under 
Adams  were  already  partisans  of  Jackson ;  but  the  rest  soon 
discovered  that  a  changed  policy  had  come  in.  Between  March 
4,  1829,  and  March  22,  1830,  491  postmasters  and  230  other  of 
ficers  were  removed,  making,  as  it  was  thought,  with  their  sub 
ordinates,  at  least  two  thousand  political  changes.  Mr.  Sumner 
well  points  out  that  it  is  unfair  to  charge  this,  as  we  often  do, 
solely  upon  Jackson.  Crawford,  as  has  already  been  seen,  pre 
pared  the  way  for  the  practice ;  it  had  been  perfected  in  the 
local  politics  of  New  York  and  Pennsylvania.  It  was  simply  a 
disease  which  the  nation  must  undergo — must  ultimately  over 
throw,  indeed,  unless  overthrown  by  it ;  but  it  will  always  be 
identified,  by  coincidence  of  time  at  least,  with  the  Presidency 
of  Andrew  Jackson.  If  not  the  father  of  the  evil,  he  will  always 
stand  in  history  as  its  godfather. 

It  is  a  curious  fact  in  political  history  that  a  public  man  is 
almost  always,  to  a  certain  extent,  truthfully  criticised  by  the 
party  opposed  to  him.  His  opponents  may  exaggerate,  they 
may  distort,  but  they  are  rarely  altogether  wrong;  their  criti 
cism  generally  goes  to  the  right  point,  and  finds  out  the  weak 
spot.  Jackson  was  as  vehemently  attacked  as  Jefferson,  and 
by  the  same  class  of  people,  but  the  points  of  the  criticism 
were  wholly  different.  Those  who  had  habitually  denounced 
Jefferson  for  being  timid  in  action  were  equally  hard  on  Jack 
son  for  brimming  over  with  superfluous  courage,  and  being 
ready  to  slap  every  one  in  the  face.  The  discrimination  of 
charges  was  just.  A  merely  vague  and  blundering  assailant 
would  have  been  just  as  likely  to  call  Jackson  a  coward  and  Jef 
ferson  a  fire-eater,  which  would  have  been  absurd.  The  sum 
ming  up  of  the  Federalist  William  Sullivan,  written  in  1834, 
was  not  so  very  far  from  the  sober  judgment  of  posterity.  "  An- 


HICKORY:'  443 

drew  Jackson.  ...  is  a  sort  of  lusus  reipubliccr,  held  by  no  rules 
or  laws,  and  who  honestly  believes  his  sycophants  that  he  was 
born  to  command.  With  a  head  and  heart  not  better  than 
Thomas  Jefferson  had,  but  freed  from  the  inconvenience  of  that 
gentleman's  constitutional  timidity,  and  familiar  with  the  sword, 
he  has  disclosed  the  real  purpose  of  the  American  people  in 
fighting  the  battles  of  the  Revolution  and  establishing  a  nation 
al  republic,  viz.,  that  the  will  of  Andrew  Jackson  shall  be  the 
law  and  only  law  of  the  republic." 

Really  General  Jackson  himself  would  not  have  greatly  ob 
jected  to  this  estimate,  could  he  have  had  patience  to  read  it. 
He  was  singularly  free  from  hypocrisy  or  concealment,  was 
not  much  of  a  talker,  and  took  very  little  trouble  to  invent 
fine  names  for  what  he  did.  But  on  another  point  where  he 
was  as  sharply  criticised  he  was  very  vulnerable ;  like  most 
ignorant  and  self-willed  men,  he  was  easily  managed  by  those 
who  understood  him.  Here  again  was  an  illustration  of  the  dis 
cernment  of  even  vehement  enemies.  Nobody  charged  Jeffer 
son  with  being  over-influenced  by  a  set  of  inferior  men,  though 
all  the  opposition  charged  Jackson  with  it.  The  reason  was 
that  in  this  last  case  it  was  true ;  and  during  the  greater  part  of 
Jackson's  two  administrations  there  was  constant  talk  of  what 
Webster  called  the  "  cabinet  improper,"  as  distinct  from  the 
cabinet  proper  —  what  was  known  in  popular  phrase  as  the 
"kitchen  cabinet."  Here  again  came  in  the  felicity  of  Jack 
Downing's  portraiture.  The  familiarity  with  which  this  imagi 
nary  ally  pulled  off  the  President's  boots  or  wore  his  old  clothes 
hardly  surpassed  the  undignified  attitudes  popularly  attributed 
to  Swartwout  and  Hill  and  Van  Buren. 

On  the  day  of  his  inauguration  the  President  was  received 
in  Washington  with  an  ardor  that  might  have  turned  a  more 
modest  head.  On  the  day  when  the  new  administration  began 
(March  4,  1829),  Daniel  Webster  wrote  to  his  sister-in-law,  with 
whom  he  had  left  his  children  that  winter:  u  To-day  we  have 


HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

had  the  inauguration.  A  monstrous  crowd  of  people  is  in  the 
city.  I  never  saw  anything  like  it  before.  Persons  have  come 
five  hundred  miles  to  see  General  Jackson,  and  they  really  seem 
to  think  that  the  country  is  rescued  from  some  frightful  dan 
ger."  It  is  difficult  now  to  see  what  this  peril  was  supposed  to 
be ;  but  we  know  that  the  charges  of  monarchical  tendency 
made  against  John  Adams  had  been  renewed  against  his  son — 
a  renewal  that  seems  needless  in  case  of  a  man  so  scrupulously 
republican  that  he  would  not  use  a  seal  ring;  and  so  unambi 
tious  that  he  always  sighed  after  the  quieter  walks  of  literature. 
Equally  unjust  was  the  charge  of  extravagance  against  the 
younger  Adams,  who  kept  the  White  House  in  better  order 
than  his  predecessor  on  less  than  half  the  appropriation — an 
economy  wholly  counterbalanced  in  some  minds  by  the  fact 
that  he  had  put  in  a  billiard-table.  But  however  all  this  may 
have  been,  the  fact  is  certain  that  no  President  had  yet  entered 
the  White  House  amid  such  choruses  of  delight  as  were  called 
forth  by  Jackson ;  nor  did  it  happen  again  until  his  pupil,  Van 
Buren,  yielded,  amid  equal  popular  enthusiasm,  to  another  mili 
tary  hero,  Harrison. 

For  the  social  life  of  Washington  the  President  had  one  ad 
vantage  which  was  altogether  unexpected,  and  seemed  difficult 
of  explanation  by  anything  in  his  earlier  career.  He  had  at  his 
command  the  most  courteous  and  agreeable  manners.  Even  be 
fore  the  election  of  Adams,  Daniel  Webster  had  written  to  his 
brother:  "General  Jackson's  manners  are  better  than  those  of 
any  of  the  candidates.  He  is  grave,  mild,  and  reserved.  My  wife 
is  for  him  decidedly."  And  long  after,  when  the  President  was 
to  pass  in  review  before  those  who  were  perhaps  his  most  im 
placable  opponents,  the  ladies  of  Boston,  we  have  the  testimony 
of  the  late  Josiah  Quincy,  in  his  "  Figures  from  the  Past,"  that 
the  personal  bearing  of  this  obnoxious  official  was  most  unwill 
ingly  approved.  Mr.  Quincy  was  detailed  by  Governor  Lincoln, 
on  whose  military  staff  he  was,  to  attend  President  Jackson 


DANIEL   WEBSTER. 
[From  the  painting  by  G.  P.  A.  Healy,  now  in  Faneuil  Hall,  Boston.] 


"OLD  HICKORY:'  447 

everywhere  when  visiting  Boston  in  1833;  and  this  narrator 
testifies  that,  with  every  prejudice  against  Jackson,  he  found 
him  essentially  "  a  knightly  personage — prejudiced,  narrow,  mis 
taken  on  many  points,  it  might  be,  but  vigorously  a  gentleman 
in  his  high  sense  of  honor  and  in  the  natural  straightforward 
courtesies  which  are  easily  distinguished  from  the  veneer  of 
policy."  Sitting  erect  on  his  horse,  a  thin  stiff  type  of  military 
strength,  he  carried  with  him  in  the  streets  a  bearing  of  such 
dignity  that  staid  old  Bostonians  who  had  refused  even  to  look 
upon  him  from  their  windows  would  finally  be  coaxed  into  tak 
ing  one  peep,  and  would  then  hurriedly  bring  forward  their  lit 
tle  daughters  to  wave  their  handkerchiefs.  He  wrought,  Mr. 
Quincy  declares,  " a  mysterious  charm  upon  old  and  young;" 
showed,  although  in  feeble  health,  a  great  consideration  for 
others ;  and  was  in  private  a  really  agreeable  companion.  It 
appears  from  these  reminiscences  that  the  President  was  not 
merely  the  cause  of  wit  in  others,  but  now  and  then  appreciated 
it  himself,  and  that  he  used  to  listen  with  delight  to  -the  reading 
of  the  "  Jack  Downing "  letters,  laughing  heartily  sometimes, 
and  declaring,  "  The  Vice  -  president  must  have  written  that. 
Depend  upon  it,  Jack  Downing  is  only  Van  Buren  in  masquer 
ade."  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  the  satirist  is  already  the  better 
remembered  of  the  two,  although  Van  Buren  was  in  his  day  so 
powerful  as  to  preside  over  the  official  patronage  of  the  nation, 
and  to  be  called  the  "  Little  Magician." 

But  whatever  personal  attractions  of  manner  President 
Jackson  may  have  had,  he  threw  away  his  social  leadership  at 
Washington  by  a  single  act  of  what  may  have  been  misapplied 
chivalry.  This  act  was  what  Mr.  Morse  has  tersely  called  "  the 
importation  of  Mrs.  Eaton's  visiting  list  into  the  politics  and 
government  of  the  country."  It  was  the  nearest  approach  yet 
made  under  our  masculine  political  institutions  to  those  eminent 
scandals  which  constitute  the  minor  material  of  court  historians 
in  Europe.  The  heroine  of  the  comedy,  considered  merely  as 


448  HISTORY   OF   THE  UNITED   STATES. 

Peggy  O'Neil,  daughter  of  a  Washington  innkeeper — or  as  Mrs. 
Timberlake,  the  wife  of  a  naval  purser  who  had  committed  sui 
cide  because  of  strong  drink — might  have  seemed  more  like  a 
personage  out  of  one  of  Fielding's  novels  than  as  a  feature  in 
the  history  of  an  administration ;  but  when  fate  at  last  made  her 
Mrs.  Secretary  Eaton  she  became  one  who  could  disturb  cab 
inets  and  annihilate  friendships.  It  was  not  merely  out  of  re 
gard  for  her  personal  wrongs  that  all  this  took  place,  but  there 
was  a  long  history  behind  it.  There  had  been  a  little  irregu 
larity  about  President  Jackson's  own  marriage.  He  had  es 
poused  his  wife  after  a  supposed  divorce  from  a  previous  hus 
band  ;  and  when  the  divorce  really  took  place  the  ceremony  had 
to  be  repeated.  Moreover,  as  the  divorce  itself  had  originally 
been  based  on  some  scandal  about  Jackson,  he  was  left  in  a 
state  of  violent  sensitiveness  on  the  whole  matrimonial  question. 
Mrs.  Eaton  had  nothing  in  the  world  to  do  with  all  this,  but  she 
got  the  benefit  of  it.  The  mere  fact  that  she  to  whom  the  Presi 
dent  had  good-naturedly  nodded  as  Peggy  O'Neil  had  been  cen 
sured  by  his  own  officials,  after  she  had  become  the  wife  of  one 
of  them,  was  enough  to  enrage  him,  and  he  possibly  looked 
across  the  fireplace  at  the  picture  of  Mrs.  Jackson — a  plain,  es 
timable  backwoodswoman,  who  used  to  smoke  her  corn-cob  pipe 
in  the  opposite  corner — and  swore  to  himself,  and  very  probably 
aloud,  that  Peggy  O'Neil  should  be  sustained. 

For  once  he  overestimated  his  powers.  He  had  conquered 
Indian  tribes  and  checked  the  army  of  Great  Britain,  but  the 
ladies  of  Washington  society  were  too  much  for  him.  Every 
member  of  his  cabinet  expressed  the  utmost  approval  of  his 
position,  but  they  said  with  one  accord  that  those  matters  must 
be  left  to  their  wives.  Mrs.  Donelson,  his  own  niece — that  is, 
the  wife  of  his  nephew,  and  the  lady  who  received  company  for 
him  at  the  White  House — would  not  receive  Mrs.  Eaton,  and 
was  sent  back  to  Tennessee.  Mrs.  Calhoun,  the  wife  of  the 
Vice-president,  took  the  same  attitude,  and  ruined  thereby  her 


"OLD  HICKORY:-  449 

husband's  political  prospects,  Mr.  Calhoun  being  utterly  super 
seded  in  the  President's  good  graces  by  Mr.  Van  Buren,  who, 
being  a  widower,  could  pay  attention  to  the  offending  fair  one 
without  let  or  hinderance.  Through  his  influence  Baron  Kru- 
dener,  the  Russian  Minister,  and  Mr.  Vaughan,  the  British  Min 
ister,  both  bachelors,  gave  entertainments  at  which  "  Bellona," 
as  the  newspapers  afterwards  called  the  lady,  from  her  influence 
in  creating  strife,  was  present.  It  did  no  good;  every  dance  in 
which  she  stood  up  to  take  part  was,  in  the  words  of  a  Wash 
ington  letter-  writer,  "  instantly  dissolved  into  its  original  ele 
ments,"  and  though  she  was  placed  at  the  head  of  the  supper- 
table,  every  lady  present  ignored  her  very  existence.  Thus  the 
amenities  of  Van  Buren  were  as  powerless  as  the  anger  of  Jack 
son  ;  but  the  astute  Secretary  won  the  President's  heart,  and 
with  it  that  of  his  whole  immediate  circle — cabinet  proper  and 
cabinet  improper.  It  was  one  of  the  things  that  turned  the 
scale  between  Calhoun  and  Van  Buren,  putting  the  New  York 
"magician"  in  line  for  the  Presidential  succession;  and  in  this 
way  Peggy  O'Neil  had  an  appreciable  influence  on  the  political 
history  of  the  nation.  It  was  fortunate  that  she  did  not  also 
lead  to  foreign  embroilments,  for  the  wife  of  the  Dutch  Minister 
once  refused  to  sit  next  to  her  at  a  public  entertainment,  upon 
which  the  President  threatened  to  demand  the  Minister's  recall. 
All  this  time  Jackson  himself  remained  utterly  free  from  scan 
dal,  nor  did  his  enemies  commonly  charge  him  with  anything 
beyond  ill-timed  quixotism.  But  it  shows  how  feminine  influ 
ence  creeps  inside  of  all  political  barriers,  and  recalls  Charles 
Churchill's  couplet— 

"  Women,  who've  oft  as  sovereigns  graced  the  land, 
But  never  governed  well  at  second-hand." 

The  two  acts  with  which  the  administration  of  President 
Jackson  will  be  longest  identified  are  his  dealings  with  South 
Carolina  in  respect  to  nullification,  and  his  long  warfare  with 

30 


450  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED  STATES. 

the  United  States  Bank.  The  first  brought  the  New  England 
States  back  to  him,  and  the  second  took  them  away  again.  He 
perhaps  won  rather  more  applause  than  he  merited  by  the  one 
act,  and  more  condemnation  than  was  just  for  the  other.  Let 
•us  first  consider  the  matter  of  nullification.  When  various 
Southern  States — Georgia  at  first,  not  South  Carolina,  taking 
the  lead  —  had  quarrelled  with  the  tariff  of  1828,  and  openly 
threatened  to  set  it  aside,  they  evidently  hoped  for  the  co-opera 
tion  of  the  President;  or  at  least  for  that  silent  acquiescence*  he 
had  shown  when  Georgia  had  been  almost  equally  turbulent  on 
the  Indian  question,  and  he  would  not  interfere,  as  his  predeces 
sor  had  done,  to  protect  the  treaty  rights  of  the  Indian  tribes. 
The  whole  South  was  therefore  startled  when  he  gave,  at  a  ban 
quet  on  Jefferson's  birthday  (April  13,  1830),  a  toast  that  now 
seems  commonplace — "  The  Federal  Union ;  it  must  be  pre 
served."  But  this  was  not  all ;  when  the  time  came  he  took 
vigorous,  if  not  altogether  consistent,  steps  to  preserve  it. 

When,  in  November,  1832,  South  Carolina  for  the  first  time 
officially  voted  that  certain  tariff  acts  were  null  and  void  in  that 
State,  the  gauntlet  of  defiance  was  fairly  thrown  down,  and  Jack 
son  picked  it  up.  He  sent  General  Scott  to  take  command  at 
Charleston,  with  troops  near  by,  and  two  gun-boats  at  hand ;  he 
issued  a  dignified  proclamation,  written  by  Livingston  (Decem 
ber  10,  1832),  which  pronounced  the  act  of  South  Carolina  con 
tradictory  to  the  Constitution,  unauthorized  by  it,  and  destructive 
of  its  aims.  So  far,  so  good ;  but  unfortunately  the  President 
had,  the  week  before  (December  4,  1832),  sent  a  tariff  message  to 
Congress,  of  which  John  Quincy  Adams  wrote,  "It  goes  far  to 
dissolve  the  Union  into  its  original  elements,  and  is  in  substance 
a  complete  surrender  into  the  hands  of  the  nullifiers  of  South 
Carolina."  Then  came  Mr.  Clay's  compromise  tariff  of  1833, 
following  in  part  the  line  indicated  by  this  message,  and  achiev 
ing,  as  Mr.  Calhoun  said,  a  victory  for  nullification — leaving  the 
matter  a  drawn  game,  at  any  rate.  The  action  of  Jackson,  being 


-OLD  HICKORY  r  451 

thus  accompanied,  settled  nothing;  it  was  like  valiantly  ordering 
a  burglar  out  of  your  house  with  a  pistol,  and  adding  the  sug 
gestion  that  he  will  find  a  portion  of  the  family  silver  on  the 
hall  table,  ready  packed  for  his  use,  as  he  goes  out. 

Nevertheless,  the  burglar  was  gone  for  the  moment,  and  the 
President  had  the  credit  of  it.  He  had  already  been  re-elected 
by  an  overwhelming  majority  in  November,  1832,  receiving  219 
electoral  votes,  and  Clay  49 ;  while  Floyd  had  the  1 1  votes  of 
South  Carolina  (which  still  chose  electors  by  its  Legislature — 
a  practice  now7  abandoned),  and  Wirt  the  7  of  Vermont.  Van 
Buren  wTas  chosen  Vice-president,  being  nominated  in  place  of 
Calhoun  by  the  Democratic  National  Convention,  which  now 
for  the  first  time  came  into  operation.  The  President  was  thus 
at  his  high-water  mark  of  popularity — always  a  dangerous  time 
for  a  public  man.  His  vehement  nature  accepted  his  re-election 
as  a  proof  that  he  was  right  in  everything,  and  he  grew  more 
self-confident  than  ever.  More  imperiously  than  ever,  he  or 
dered  about  friends  and  opponents ;  and  his  friends  repaid  it  by 
guiding  his  affairs,  unconsciously  to  himself.  Meantime  he  wras 
encountering  another  enemy  of  greater  power,  because  more 
silent,  than  Southern  nullification,  and  he  was  drifting  on  to  his 
final  contest  with  the  United  States  Bank. 

Sydney  Smith  says  that  every  Englishman  feels  himself 
able,  without  instruction,  to  drive  a  pony-chaise,  conduct  a  small 
farm,  and  edit  a  newspaper.  The  average  American  assumes, 
in  addition  to  all  this,  that  he  is  competent  to  manage  a  bank. 
President  Jackson  claimed  for  himself  in  this  respect  no  more 
than  his  fellows ;  the  difference  was  in  strength  of  will  and  in 
possession  of  power.  A  man  so  ignorant  that  a  member  of  his 
own  family,  according  to  Mr.  Trist,  used  to  say  that  the  gen 
eral  did  not  believe  the  world  was  round,  might  easily  convince 
himself  that  he  knew  all  about  banking.  As  he  had,  besides  all 
this,  very  keen  observation  and  great  intuitive  judgment  of  char 
acter,  he  was  probably  right  in  his  point  of  attack.  There  is 


452  HISTORY  OF    THE  UNITED    STATES. 

little  doubt  that  the  bank  of  the  United  States,  under  Nicholas 
Biddle,  concentrated  in  itself  an  enormous  power;  and  it  spent 
in  four  years,  by  confession  of  its  directors,  $58,000  in  what 
they  called  "  self-defence  "  against  "  politicians."  When,  on  July 
10,  1832,  General  Jackson,  in  a  message  supposed  to  have  been 
inspired  by  Amos  Kendall,  vetoed  the  bill  renewing  the  charter 
of  the  bank,  he  performed  an  act  of  courage,  taking  counsel 
with  his  instincts.  But  when  in  the  year  following  he  per 
formed  the  act  known  as  the  "  removal  of  the  deposits,"  or,  in 
other  words,  caused  the  public  money  to  be  no  longer  deposited 
in  the  National  Bank  and  its  twenty- five  branches,  but  in  a 
variety  of  State  banks  instead,  then  he  took  counsel  of  his 
ignorance. 

The  act  originally  creating  the  bank  had,  indeed,  given  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  authority  to  remove  these  deposits  at 
any  time,  he  afterwards  giving  to  Congress  his  reasons.  The 
President  had  in  vain  urged  Congress  to  order  the  change ; 
that  body  declined.  He  had  in  vain  urged  the  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  to  remove  them,  and  on  his  refusing,  had  displaced 
the  official  himself.  The  President  at  last  found  a  Secretary  of 
the  Treasury  (Roger  B.  Taney)  to  order  the  removal,  or  rather 
cessation,  of  deposits.  The  consequence,  immediate  or  remote, 
was  an  immense  galvanizing  into  existence  of  State  banks,  and 
ultimately  a  vast  increase  of  paper-money.  The  Sub-Treasury 
system  had  not  then  been  thought  of;  there  was  no  proper 
place  of  deposit  for  the  public  funds ;  their  possession  was  a 
direct  stimulus  to  speculation ;  and  the  President's  cure  was 
worse  than  the  disease.  All  the  vast  inflation  of  1835  and  1836 
and  the  business  collapse  of  1837  were  due  to  the  fact  not  mere 
ly  that  Andrew  Jackson  brought  all  his  violent  and  persistent 
will  to  bear  against  the  United  States  Bank,  but  that  when  he 
got  the  power  into  his  own  hands  he  did  not  know  what  to  do 
with  it.  Not  one  of  his  biographers  —  hardly  even  a  bigoted 
admirer,  so  far  as  I  know — now  claims  that  his  course  in  this 


"OLD  HICKORY."  453 

respect  was  anything  but  a  mistake.  "  No  monster  bank,"  says 
Professor  W.  G.  Sumner,  "under  the  most  malicious  manage 
ment,  could  have  produced  as  much  havoc,  either  political  or 
financial,  as  this  system  produced  while  it  lasted."  If  the  bank 
was,  as  is  now  generally  admitted,  a  dangerous  institution,  Jack 
son  was  in  the  right  to  resist  it ;  he  was  right  even  in  disregard 
ing  the  enormous  flood  of  petitions  that  poured  in  to  its  sup 
port.  But  to  oppose  a  dangerous  bank  does  not  necessarily 
make  one  an  expert  in  banking.  The  utmost  that  can  be  said 
in  favor  of  his  action  is  that  the  calamitous  results  showed  the 
great  power  of  the  institution  he  overthrew,  and  that  if  he  had 
let  it  alone  the  final  result  might  have  been  as  bad. 

Two  new  States  were  added  to  the  Union  in  President  Jack 
son's  time — Arkansas  (1836)  and  Michigan  (1837).  The  popu 
lation  of  the  United  States  in  1830  had  risen  to  nearly  thirteen 
millions  (12,866,020).  There  was  no  foreign  war  during  his  ad 
ministration,  although  one  with  France  was  barely  averted,  and 
no  domestic  contest  except  the  second  Seminole  war  against 
the  Florida  Indians — a  contest  in  which  these  combatants  held 
their  ground  so  well,  under  the  half-breed  chief  Osceola,  that  he 
himself  was  only  captured  by  the  violation  of  a  flag  of  truce, 
and  that  even  to  this  day,  as  the  Indian  Commissioners  tell  us, 
some  three  hundred  of  the  tribe  remain  in  Florida.  The  war 
being  equally  carried  on  against  fugitive  slaves  called  Maroons, 
who  had  intermarried  with  the  Indians,  did  something  to  pre 
pare  the  public  mind  for  a  new  agitation  which  was  to  remould 
American  political  parties,  and  to  modify  the  Constitution  of 
the  nation. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  the  very  air  began  to  be  filled 
in  Jackson's  time  with  rumors  of  insurrections  and  uprisings  in 
different  parts  of  the  world.  The  French  revolution  of  the 
Three  Days  had  roused  all  the  American  people  to  sympathy, 
and  called  forth  especial  enthusiasm  in  such  cities  as  Baltimore, 
Richmond,  and  Charleston.  The  Polish  revolution  had  excited 


454  HISTORY  OF   THE   UNITED   STATES. 

universal  interest,  and  John  Randolph  had  said,  "  The  Greeks 
are  at  your  doors."  All  these  things  were  being  discussed  at 
every  dinner-table,  and  the  debates  in  Virginia  as  to  the  neces 
sity  of  restricting  the  growing  intelligence  of  the  slaves  had 
added  to  the  agitation.  In  the  session  of  1829-30  a  bill  had 
passed  the  Virginia  Assembly  by  one  majority,  and  had  failed 
in  the  Senate,  prohibiting  slaves  from  being  taught  to  read  or 
write ;  and  the  next  year  it  had  passed  almost  unanimously. 
There  had  been,  about  the  same  time,  alarms  of  insurrection  in 
North  Carolina,  so  that  a  party  of  slaves  were  attacked  and 
killed  by  the  inhabitants  of  Newbern ;  alarms  in  Maryland,  so 
that  fifty  blacks  had  been  imprisoned  on  the  Eastern  Shore ; 
alarms  in  Louisiana,  so  that  reinforcements  of  troops  had  been 
ordered  to  Baton  Rouge ;  and  a  traveller  had  written  even  from 
Richmond,  Virginia,  on  the  I2th  of  February,  that  there  were 
constant  fears  of  insurrections  and  special  patrols.  Then  came 
the  insurrection  of  Nat  Turner  in  Virginia  —  an  uprising  de 
scribed  minutely  by  myself  elsewhere ;  the  remarkable  inflam 
matory  pamphlet  called  "  Walker's  Appeal,"  by  a  Northern 
colored  man — a  piece  of  writing  surpassed  in  lurid  power  by 
nothing  in  the  literature  of  the  French  Revolution ;  and,  more 
potent  than  either  or  both  of  these,  the  appearance  (January  i, 
1831)  of  the  first  number  of  the  Liberator  in  Boston.  When 
Garrison  wrote,  "  I  am  in  earnest,  I  will  not  equivocate,  I  will 
not  excuse,  I  will  not  retreat  a  single  inch,  and  I  will  be  heard," 
Andrew  Jackson  for  once  met  a  will  firmer  than  his  own,  be 
cause  more  steadfast,  and  moved  by  a  loftier  purpose.  Thence 
forth,  for  nearly  half  a  century,  the  history  of  the  nation  was 
the  history  of  the  antislavery  contest. 

The  administration  of  Jackson  will  thus  be  most  remarkable, 
after  all,  not  because  of  any  triumph  of  his  will,  but  because  of 
something  that  arose  in  spite  of  it — an  agitation  so  far  opposed 
to  his  wishes,  in  fact,  that  he  wished  for  the  passage  of  a  law 
excluding  antislavery  publications  from  the  mails.  It  was  an 


"OLD  HICKORY:'  455 

agitation  destined  to  draw  new  lines,  establish  new  standards, 
and  create  new  reputations ;  and  it  is  to  be  remembered  that  the 
Democratic  President  did  not  abhor  it  more,  on  the  one  side, 
than  did  his  fiercest  Federalist  critics  on  the  other.  One  of 
the  ablest  of  them,  William  Sullivan,  at  the  close  of  his  "  Fa 
miliar  Letters  on  Public  Characters,"  after  exhausting  language 
to  depict  the  outrages  committed  by  President  Jackson,  points 
out  as  equally  objectionable  the  rising  antislavery  movement, 
and  predicts  that,  if  it  has  its  full  course,  "  even  an  Andrew 
Jackson  may  be  a  blessing."  But  of  the  wholly  new  series  of 
events  which  were  to  date  from  this  agitation  neither  Sullivan 
nor  Jackson  had  so  much  as  a  glimpse.  These  pages  may  well 
close,  for  the  present,  with  the  dawn  of  that  great  revolution. 


INDEX. 


A. 

Abbott,  Dr.  C.  C.,  26. 

Abenaki  Indians,  186 ;  their  treaty,  187. 

Abercrombie,  General  James,  191. 

Acadia,  186,  189. 

Acl  of  Navigation,  the,  217. 

Adams,  Abigail,  quoted,  252,  254  ;  also,  271, 
312,  322,  339,  340,  344. 

Adams,  Charles  Francis,  on  the  Monroe  doc 
trine,  403. 

Adams,  John  :  his  view  of  town-meetings,  240  ; 
his  election  as  President,  332  ;  his  character, 
336 ;  his  portrait,  337 ;  his  wife,  339 ;  his 
cabinet,  340 ;  his  policy  towards  France,  340  ; 
his  rupture  with  his  party,  343  ;  his  corre 
spondence  with  Mercy  Warren,  351;  his  old 
age,  359;  also,  240,  253,  254. 

Adams,  John  Quincy,  quoted,  393,  402  ;  vote 
for  Missouri  Compromise,  393  ;  presidency 
of,  405  ;  portrait  of,  409 ;  internal  improve 
ments  recommended  by,  417  ;  the  same  ac 
complished,  418 ;  entertainments  of,  424  ; 
circumstances  of  his  election,  427,  439 ;  his 
policy,  428  ;  his  defeat,  430,  440 ;  his  want 
of  popularity,  440;  also,  431,  433,  442. 

Adams,  Mrs.  John  Quincy,  396. 

"Adams  and  Liberty,"  song  of,  342. 

Adams,  Samuel,  254,  293,  304,  335. 

Adolphus,  Gustavus,  167. 

"Adventurer,"  the  word,  146. 

Alabama  admitted  as  a  State,  393. 

Alexander  VI.,  Pope,  bulls  of,  75,  108. 

Alexander,  William  E.,  415,  434. 

Algerine  pirates,  297. 

Algonquins,  the,  132. 

Aliaco,  P.  de,  55. 

Alien  and  Sedition  Laws,  343,  350. 

Allen,  Ethan,  251. 


Alligators,  early  descriptions  of,  87. 

Ambrister,  R.  C.,  390,  439. 

American  flora,  217;   finance,  320;  literature, 

398  ;  physique,  325  ;  seamen  impressed,  366. 
Americans,  the  first,  I. 
Ames,  Fisher,  300,  319,  398. 
Amidas,  Philip,  97. 
Anderson,  Professor  B.  B.,  33, 
Andre,  Major  John,  291. 
Andros,  Governor   Edmund,  and    the    Boston 

people   (figured),   221  ;    also,  184,  215,  220, 

222,  223. 

Andros,  Lady,  220. 
Anghiera,  P.  M.  d'  (Peter  Martyr),  56,  59,  69, 

70,  71,  82,  83,  120. 
Anne,  Queen,  185. 
"  Antiquitates  Americans,"  28,  42. 
Arbuthnot,  A.,  390,  439. 
Archer,  W.  S.,  424. 
Architecture  in  colonies,  233. 
Aristophanes,  194. 
Aristotle's  narrow  sea,  55. 
Armistead,  Colonel  George,  377. 
Army,    Revolutionary,    organization    of,    257 ; 

condition  of,  258  ;    Washington's  views   of, 

259 ;    drilled   by   Steuben,  286 ;    disbanded, 

293  ;  statistics  of,  285,  292. 
Arnold,  Benedict,  43,  251,  263,  291. 
Arnold,  Matthew,  194. 
Asher,  Dr.,  83. 
Asiatics  in  America,  23,  24. 
Astor,  John  Jacob,  350. 
Avalon,  colony  of,  165. 
Aztecs,  2,  4,  17,  19,  24,  63. 

B. 

Baccalaos,  the,  82,  120. 
Bache,  Mrs.  B.  F.,  424. 

Bacon,  Lord,  84. 


458 


INDEX. 


Bacon,  Nathaniel,  Jr.,  180. 

Bacourt,  M.,  423. 

Bagot,  Sir  Charles,  396. 

Bahia,  alleged  column  at,  42. 

Balboa.     (See  Nunez,  Vasco.) 

Baltimore,  Cecil,  Lord,  portrait  of,  166  ;    also, 

170,  198. 

Baltimore,  George,  Lord,  165. 
Baltimore  founded,  165  ;  "horrors  of,"  372. 
Bancroft,  George,  28,  46,  109,  225,  272. 
Bancroft,  H.  H.,  4. 
Bandelier,  A.  F.,  5,  8,  13. 
Bank,  U.  S.,  350,  452,  453. 
Barclay,  Robert,  204. 
Barker,  Jacob,  376. 
Barlow,  Arthur,  97,  398. 
Barton,  Mrs.     (See  Livingston,  Cora.) 
Basque  fishermen,  120. 
Beamish,  C.  C.,  42. 
Beaujour,  Chevalier  de,  325. 
Becher,  Captain,  62. 
Behring  Strait,  width  of,  24. 
Belknap,  Dr.  Jeremy,  quoted,  190. 
Berkeley,  Governor  William,  179,  2OI. 
Bernaldez,  Andres,  123. 
Bimini,  island  of,  71. 
Bingham,  Mrs.,  portrait,  323. 
Bingham,  William,  424. 
Birkbeck,  Captain  Morris,  414. 
"Black  Sally,"  347. 
Blaxton,  William,  202. 
Block,  Adrian,  152. 
Bombazen,  an  Indian  chief,  174. 
Bonaparte,  Napoleon,  Federalist  sermon  against, 

370;  his  decrees,  355,  365  ;  also,  379. 
Boone,  Daniel,  421. 

Boston,  settlement  of,  162  ;  evacuation  of,  260. 
Bourbourg,  Brasseur  de,  18,  19. 
Bowdoin,  Governor  James,  313. 
Bowling-alley  built  by  a  clergyman,  195. 
Braddock,  General  Edward,  189. 
Bradford,  Governor  William,  152, 155, 158,  195. 
Bradley,  Thomas,  82. 
Bradstreet,  Governor  Simon,  191,  222. 
Brazil,  75,  76. 
Brebeuf,  Pere,  125. 

Breck,  Samuel,  quoted,  424,  427,  434. 
Breedon,  Captain  Thomas,  218. 
Brehan,  Madame  de,  312. 
Breton  fishermen,  the,  84,  120. 
Brewster,  Elder  William,  158,  195. 
Brissot  de  Warville,  J.  P.,  312. 
Bristol,  R.  I.,  rock  at,  44;  figured,  46. 
British,  plans  of,  in  Revolutionary  War,  286. 


British  Yoke,  the,  216. 

Bromfield,  Henry,  349. 

Brooks,  Rev.  C.  T.,  43. 

Brooks,  C.  W.,  24. 

Browne,  Sir  Thomas,  227. 

Bryant,  W.  C.,  190,  400. 

Buccaneers,  90,  98,  104. 

Bumstead,  Jeremiah,  174. 

Bunker  Hill,  Battle  of,  256,  257. 

Burgoyne,  General  John,  253,  286,  287. 

Burke,  Edmund,  288,  305,  335. 

Burlington,  Vt.,  vase  found  at  (figured),  22,  25. 

Burr,  Aaron,  343,  344,  355  ;  portrait  of,  357. 

Burras,  Anne,  149. 

Buttrick,  Major,  246. 

C. 

Cabeza  de  Vaca.     (See  Nunez,  Alvar.) 

Cabinet  of  Washington,  312. 

Cabot,  George,  372. 

Cabot,  J.  E.,  41,  49. 

Cabot,  John,  77,  80,  81,  82. 

Cabot,  Sebastian,  64,  77,  78,  79,  80,  81,  82,  83. 

Cabot,  Zuan  (John),  Si. 

Cabots,  the,  78,  104,  120. 

Cacafuego,  the,  captured  by  Drake,  94. 

Calhoun,  John  C.,  portrait  of,  425  ;  his  opin 
ions,  398,  402;  Vice-president,  423,  441, 
449  ;  quoted,  450. 

Calhoun,  Miss,  423. 

Calhoun,  Mrs.,  448. 

California  visited  by  Drake,  96. 

Calvert,  Cecil  (Lord  Baltimore),  portrait  of,  166. 

Calvert,  George  (Lord  Baltimore),  165. 

Calvert,  Governor  Leonard,  165. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  settled,  162;  "Tory  Row" 
in,  238. 

Canada,  derivation  of  word,  in  ;  attacks  on, 
186  ;  invasions  of,  263,  372  ;  surrender  of,  by 
France,  191,  241 ;  influence  of  this  surrender, 
227. 

Canals,  introduction  of,  420. 

Candidates,  nomination  of,  429. 

Canning,  George,  335,  403. 

Carleton,  Sir  Guy,  291. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  quoted,  152. 

Carolina,  settlement  of,  212  ;   division  of,  213. 

Carr,  Lucien,  176. 

Carroll,  Mr.,  376. 

Carter,  James,  82. 

Carthagena  captured  by  Drake,  100. 

Cartier,  J.,  portrait  of,  in  ;  setting  up  a  cross 
(figured),  113;  also,  108,  no,  112,  121,  130. 

Cartwright,  Colonel  Thomas,  218. 


INDEX. 


459 


Carver,  Jonathan,  158. 

Castin,  St.,  183. 

Cathay,  in. 

Catholic  and  Huguenot  clergy  (figured),  121. 

Cavendish,  Thomas,  102  ;  his  portrait,  102  ; 
his  capture  of  the  Santa  Anna  (figured), 
103. 

Chaac-Mol,  statue  of  (figured),  20,  21. 

Champigny,  M.,  184. 

Champlain,  Samuel  de,  16  ;  portrait  of,  127  ; 
his  journals,  128  ;  his  residence  (figured), 
130 ;  his  musketry  (figured),  132  ;  his  cam 
paign  with  the  Iroquois,  134;  also,  141,  143, 
151,  172,  181,  183,  210. 

Champlin,  Miss,  290. 

Charlemagne,  Emperor,  29. 

Charles  I.,  147. 

Charles  II.,  178,  212,  213,  217. 

Charlesfort,  near  Beaufort,  S.  C.,  116. 

Charleston,  S.  C.,  263. 

Charlestown,  Mass.,  settled,  162. 

Charlevoix,  P.  F.  X.,  182. 

Charlotte,  Queen,  339. 

Charter  of  Virginia,  141 ;  of  Maryland,  165  ; 
of  Connecticut,  219  ;  of  Massachusetts,  221  ; 
colonial  charters  annulled,  222. 

Chastellux,  Marquis  de,  324,  325. 

Chatham,  Earl  of,  229,  288. 

Chesapeake,  the,  356. 

Chesterton,  England,  mill  at,  43. 

Chicago,  111.,  388,  413,  415. 

Chichen-Itza,  21. 

Choiseul,  Due  de,  241. 

Cholula,  pyramid  of,  13. 

Chopunish  Indians,  n. 

Christiana,  Del.,  foundation  of,  167. 

Christina,  Queen,  167. 

Christopher,  St.,  59. 

Church,  Captain  Benjamin,  173,  178. 

Cicero,  195. 

Cincinnati,  O.,  388. 

Circleville,  O.,  15. 

Circumnavigation  of  globe  by  Drake,  96  ;  by 
Cavendish,  101. 

Civil  offices,  tenure  of  service  in,  402  ;  appoint 
ments  to,  442  ;  also,  321,  322,  350,  429. 

Clark,  General  William,  350. 

Clavigero,  Francisco,  u. 

Clay,  Henry,  portrait  of,  391  ;  candidate  for 
Presidency,  427,  428,  451;  quotation  from, 
438  ;  compromise  tariff  of,  450  ;  also,  362, 
365,  390,  393,  398,  439.  440. 

Clinton,  De  Witt,  374,  420. 

Clinton,  George,  355,  358. 


Clinton,  Sir  Henry,  253. 

Cobbett,  William,  366. 

Colden,  Governor  Cadwallader,  181. 

Coleridge,  S.  T.,  73. 

Collingwood,  Lord,  366. 

Colonies,  French  Protestant,  115,  116,  118,  120; 
Lane's,  Grenville's,  White's,  138  ;  Gosnold's, 
140;  Popham's,  141,  154;  Virginia,  141,  146  ; 
Dutch,  151  ;  Plymouth,  153  ;  Massachusetts, 
161  ;  Connecticut,  164  ;  in  1630,  165,  168  ; 
in  1650,  165  ;  Calvert's,  165  ;  Swedish,  167; 
Penn's,  213  ;  in  1700,  213  ;  union  of,  222. 

Columbus,  Christopher,  his  voyage  as  compared 
with  that  of  the  Northmen,  51  ;  his  training, 
52  ;  portrait  of,  53  ;  his  reasonings,  54  ;  his 
voyage,  55;  his  delusions,  56;  his  vision  (fig 
ured,  from  De  Bry),  57;  his  landing  (figured, 
after  Turner),  61 ;  landfall,  62  ;  his  treatment 
of  natives,  63  ;  his  influence  on  the  Cabots, 
78  ;  also,  64,  65,  66,  70,  74,  76,  82,  85,  109, 
123. 

Columbus,  Ferdinand,  55. 

Commerce,  Jefferson's  opposition  to,  358,  373 ; 
ruin  of  American,  355,  373. 

Commissioners,  Royal,  in  Boston,  217. 

Comogre,  69. 

Conant,  Roger,  161. 

Confederacy,  New  England,  222. 

Confederation,  experiments  at,  222  ;  formation 

^_and  failure,  295. 

Congress,  Continental,  a  single  house,  296  ; 
manners  in,  365  ;  records  of,  265  ;  early 
resolutions,  267  ;  discussions  in,  268,  272, 
273- 

Connecticut :  colonies,  164  ;  education  in,  201 ; 
witchcraft  in,  207  ;  charter  of,  219  ;  Conti 
nental  troops  in,  292. 

Constellation,  the  frigate,  342. 

Constitution,  discussion  and  formation  of,  304. 

Constitution  and  Giterriere,  battle  of,  374. 

Continental  Congress.     (See  Congress.) 

Cooper,  J.  Fenimore,  400,  421. 

Copper-mines,  early  Indian,  130. 

Cormvallis,  Earl  of,  285,  291. 

Coronado,  Francisco  de,  10. 

Cortez,  Hernando  de,  9,  10,  n,  17,  72,  73. 

Costume,  changes  of,  348. 

Coverley,  Sir  Roger  de,  an  American,  348. 

Crawford,  William  H.,  389,  398,  402,  427,  428, 
439,  442. 

Creasy,  Sir  Edward,  287. 

Creek  Indians,  12. 

Croatoan,  139. 

Cromwell,  Oliver,  216. 


460 


INDEX. 


Cromwell,  Richard,  217. 

Cudraigny,  an  Indian  god,  1 12. 

Cullenden,  Rose,  207. 

' '  Cumberland  Road  "  bill,  404. 

Custis,  Nelly,  328. 

Cutler,  Dr.  Manasseh,  310. 

Cutts,  Mrs.,  376. 

D. 

Dane,  Nathan,  306. 

Danes,  the,  34. 

Danish  Society  of  Antiquarians,  45. 

Darby,  William,  413,  415. 

Dare,  Ananias,  139. 

Dare,  Virginia,  140. 

Darien,  68,  69. 

Darwin,  Charles,  4,  20. 

D'Avezac,  M.,  77. 

Davis,  Captain  Isaac,  245. 

Davis,  Isaac  P.,  373. 

Davis,  John,  344. 

Deane,  Charles,  77,  82,  219. 

De  Bry's  imaginary  monsters,  57. 

Decatur,  Commodore  Stephen,  358. 

Declaration  of  Independence,  273,  274,  280. 

Deerfield,  Mass.,  massacre  at,  185. 

Delaware,  Lord,  149,  167. 

Delaware  settled,  167  ;  connection  with  Penn 
sylvania,  213,  225. 

Delft  Haven,  154. 

Democratic  party,  first  called  Republican,  336; 
triumph  of,  343  ;  material  of,  351  ;  long  in 
power,  360 ;  change  in  doctrines,  380. 

Dennie,  T.  G.,  his  Portfolio,  343  ;  attack  on 
Jefferson,  344. 

Denonville,  M.,  184. 

Dexter,  F.  B.,  202. 

Diaz,  Bernal,  II,  108. 

Dickens,  Charles,  311. 

Dickinson,  John,  quoted,  226;  speech  of,  271; 
also,  268,  270,  272,  277. 

Dighton  Rock,  the,  42 ;  figured,  45. 

Diman,  Professor,  202. 

Donelson,  Mrs.,  448. 

Dorchester  Company,  the,  161. 

Dorchester,  Mass.,  settled,  162. 

Doringh,  C.  H.  R.,  44. 

"  Downing,  Jack,"  433. 

Downing,  Sir  George,  193. 

Drake,  Sir  Francis,  portrait  of,  91 ;  maps  of, 
95  ;  attack  on  San  Domingo  (figured),  99 ; 
also,  90,  92,  94,  96,  98,  100,  101,  104,  138. 

Ducket,  Lionel,  85. 

Duelling  at  Washington,  364. 


Duny,  Anne,  207. 

Dustin,  Hannah,  173. 

Dutch  in  America,  the,  151,  168,  211. 

Dutch  West  India  Company,  152. 

Dwight,  Rev.  Timothy,  398. 

E. 

"  Eastward,  Ho  !"  quoted,  146. 

Eaton,  Mrs.,  448. 

Education  in  the  colonies,  201. 

Edwards,  Dr.  Enoch,  281. 

El  Dorado,  105. 

Elephant  Mound,  the,  26. 

Elephant  Pipe,  the,  26. 

Eliot,  Rev.  John,  126,  194,  195,  253. 

Elizabeth,   Queen,   Raleigh's    tribute   to,  107; 

also,  84,  88,  90,  96,  107. 
Ellery,  William,  quoted,  282  ;  also,  284,  306. 
Ellis,  Dr.  George  E.,  quoted,  126,  171,  174. 
Embargo,  the,  356  ;  Bryant's  poem  against  it, 

356. 

Emerson,  R.  W.,  quoted,  384. 
Emerson,  Rev.  William,  quoted,  257. 
Endicott,  John,  portrait  of,  161  ;  also,  162,  164, 

195,  218. 

England.     (See  Great  Britain.) 
English  nation,  an,  predicted  by  Raleigh,  137. 
Englishmen  in  America,  second  generation  of, 

192. 

Erik  the  Red,  36,  41. 
Eskimo,  23. 

Eustis,  Dr.  William,  247. 
Everett,  Edward,  399,  400,  401. 
Everett,  Dr.  William,  quoted,  48. 
Ewaiponima,  an  imaginary  race,  106. 
Excommunication  of  Fletcher  by  Drake,  100. 

F. 

Fauchet,  Baron,  331. 

Federalists,  their  inconsistency,  369  ;  their  de 
fence  of  the  right  of  search,  370;  their  decline, 
355.  362  ;  partisanship,  371 ;  their  provoca 
tions,  372. 

Ferdinand,  King  of  Spain,  55,  62,  63,  78. 

Fernow,  Berthold,  151,  152. 

Fersen,  Count,  335. 

Fielding,  Henry,  265. 

Finance,  American,  established  by  Hamilton, 
320. 

"First"  and  "Second"  Virginia  colonies,  141. 

Flag,  the  American,  291. 

Fletcher,  Rev.  Francis,  93,  100. 

Flint,  Timothy,  414,  415,  419. 

Flora,  American,  transformed,  217. 


INDEX. 


461 


Florida,  mounds  of,  15  ;  origin  of  name  of,  71 ; 
purchase  of,  390. 

Floyd,  John,  451. 

Forrest,  Mrs.,  149. 

Fort  Caroline,  Florida,  116,  117. 

Fort  Moultrie,  defence  of,  263. 

Foster,  J.  W.,  cited,  14. 

Fountain  of  Youth,  search  for  the,  70. 

Fox,  Captain,  62. 

Fox,  Charles  James,  288. 

France,  policy  of,  towards  Indians,  124,  132  ; 
discoveries  of,  182;  activity  of,  189;  claims 
surrendered,  191 ;  first  treaty  with,  287  ;  army 
of,  in  America,  289 ;  influence  of,  on  Amer 
ica,  328,  333 ;  X,  Y,  Z  negotiations,  341. 

Francis  I.,  109. 

Franklin,  Benjamin,  quoted,  241,  279,  304;  let 
ter  to,  294 ;  his  political  theory,  305  ;  also, 
224,  265,  268,  270,  274,  275,  287^298,  305. 

Franks,  Rebecca,  323,  324. 

Freedom,  religious,  in  Rhode  Island  and  Mary 
land,  199. 

French  and  Indian  wars,  132. 

French  Revolution  :  influence  upon  Americans, 
328,  329 ;  influence  on  party  lines,  333. 

Freneau,  Philip,  329,  398. 

Freydis,  a  Norse  woman,  40. 

Frobisher,  Captain  Martin,  97,  98. 

Frontenac,  Comte  de,  124,  184. 

Frost,  Mr.,  234. 

Frothingham,  Richard,  quoted,  243  ;  also,  256, 
269. 

Fulton,  Robert,  420. 

G. 

Gage,  General  Thomas,  254,  267. 

Gallatin,  Albert,  335,  374,  389,  437. 

Gamier,  Pere,  125. 

Garrison,  W.  L.,  454. 

Gates,  General  Horatio,  287. 

Genet,  E.  C.,  329,  330,  331. 

George  III.,  King,  288. 

Georgia,  mounds   of,  15  ;    settlement  of,  233  ; 

Continental  troops  of,  292. 
Germantown,  Pa.,  battle  of,  286. 
Gerry,  Elbridge,  279,  299,  304,  321,  374. 
Gilbert,  Raleigh,  142. 
Gilbert,  Sir  Humphrey,  97. 
Gilman,  D.  C.,  cited,  389,  403. 
Gleig,  Rev.  G.  R.,  361. 
Globe  of  Schoner  (figured),  67. 
Gomara,  F.  L.  de,  n,  82. 
Goodrich,  A.,  64. 
Goodrich,  James,  speech  of,  388. 


Goodrich,  S.  G.,  cited,  400. 

Gorges,  Sir  F.,  141,  143. 

Gorton,  Samuel,  199. 

Gosnold,  Bartholomew,  140,  146,  148,  154. 

Gougou,  an  Indian  monster,  131,  210. 

Gourgues,  Dominique  de  (figured),  120;  also, 
119. 

Gouverneur,  Mrs.,  395. 

Governor  Shirley's  War,  187. 

Grant,  Mrs.,  of  Laggan,  238. 

Gravier,  M.,  49. 

Gray,  Dr.  Asa,  24. 

Great  Britain  :  explorations  from,  76 ;  seamen 
of,  84  ;  wars  of,  with  Spain,  88  ;  claims  of 
discovery,  97  ;  early  colonies  of,  138  ;  wars 
with  France,  169  ;  with  Indians,  172  ;  love 
of  colonists  for,  216;  love  changed  into  ha 
tred,  217  ;  aggressions  of,  217  ;  official  igno 
rance  in,  223  ;  feeling  in,  towards  colonies, 
223  ;  outbreak  of  war,  241  ;  peace  negotia 
tions  with,  292;  Jay's  treaty  with,  331;  new 
aggressions  of,  355  ;  second  war  with,  360; 
treaty  of  Ghent  with,  378. 

Greene,  George  W.,  109. 

Greene,  General  Nathaniel,  284,  291. 

Greenland,  36,  46,  48,  50,  51. 

Grenville,  Sir  Richard,  138. 

Grimalfson,  Bjarni,  31. 

Griswold,  R.  W.,  324. 

Grundy,  Lewis,  362,  365. 

Guiana,  105. 

Gun-boats,  Jefferson's,  356,  373. 

Gutierrez,  Pedro,  61. 

H. 

Hackit,  Thomas,  116. 

Hakluyt,  Richard,  85,  96,  109,  138. 

Hale,  John  P.,  384. 

Hale,  Sir  Matthew,  quoted,  207. 

Hall,  Bishop,  quoted,  153,  207. 

Halleck,  F.  G.,  quoted,  394. 

Hallowell,  R.  P.,  204. 

Hamilton,  Alexander,  financial  achievements 
of,  320  ;  quoted,  331  ;  quarrel  with  Adams, 
343;  death  of,  355;  also,  312,  316,  319,  326, 
330.  333,  340,  342,  343.  350,  355,  361,  382. 

Hamilton,  Mrs.,  312. 

Hancock,  John,  quoted,  279;  letter  to,  285; 
also,  254,  259,  277. 

Hannibal,  70. 

Harold,  King,  30,  34. 

Harris,  Captain,  254. 

Harrison,  Benjamin,  quoted,  279. 

Harrison,  General  W.  H.,  375. 


462 


INDEX. 


Harrisse,  H.,  62. 

Hartford  Convention,  the,  372. 

Hartop,  Job,  104,  143. 

Harvard,  Rev.  John,  194. 

Haven,  S.  F.,  quoted,  22. 

Hawkes,  Henry,  105. 

Hawkins,  Sir  John,  portrait   of,  86  ;    arms  of, 

88  ;  also,  85,  86,  87,  88,  89,  90,  96,  103,  104, 

118. 

Hawthorne,  N.,  quoted,  192  ;  also,  187,  400. 
Hay,  Mrs.,  395. 
Hazard,  Isaac  Peace,  237. 
Hazard,  Robert,  237. 
Heath,  General  Benjamin,  249. 
"  Heimskringla,"  the,  quoted,  30. 
Helluland,  38,  50. 
Henrietta  Maria,  Queen,  165. 
Henry  IV.  (of  France),  128. 
Henry  VI.  (of  England),  88. 
Henry  VII.  (of  England),  78,  80,  81,  84. 
Henry,  Miss,  422. 

Henry,  Patrick,  229,  231,  298,  300,  304. 
HefiuTf;~37. 

Herrera,  T.  A.,  quoted,  58,  59,  60,  61,  72. 
Higginson,  Rev.  Francis,  quoted,  162,  163,  197 ; 

also,  195. 

Hochelaga  (Montreal),  in,  112. 
Hodenosote  (Iroquois  house),  12,  14. 
Hoist,  Dr.  Von,  299. 
Homer,  194,  195. 

Hooke,  Rev.  William,  quoted,  216,  231. 
Hooker,  Rev.  Thomas,  quoted,  220  ;  also,  195. 
Hop,  39,  48. 
Hopkins,  Stephen,  227. 
Hopkinson,  Francis,  266. 
Horace,  194. 

Howe,  Sir  William,  253,  256,  281,  282,  285. 
Howell,  James,  48,  207. 
Howells,  W.  D.,  349. 
Hubbard,  Rev.  William,  176. 
Hudson,  Henry,  143,  151,  152. 
Huguenot  colonies,  French,  115,  116,  118,  I2O. 
Hull,  Commodore  Isaac,  398. 
Hull,  General  William,  374. 
Humboldt,  Alexander  von,  58,  62. 
Humphreys,  David,  398. 
Hundred  Years'  War,  the,  169. 
Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne,  199. 
Hutchinson,  Governor   Thomas,  quoted,  158  ; 
also,  162,  259. 

I. 

Iceland,  Northmen  in,  36  ;  visited  by  Colum 
bus,  53;  also,  50,  51,  52. 


Ignorance  of  English  officials,  223. 

Illinois  admitted  as  a  State,  393  ;  unsettled, 
407,  416  ;  settled,  417. 

Impressment  of  seamen  (figured),  367. 

Independence,  American,  early  feeling  about, 
266,  267  ;  dawning  of,  241  ;  war  for,  242  ;  sec 
ond  war  for,  360.  (See  Revolutionary  War.) 

Indiana  admitted  as  a  State,  393  ;  unsettled, 
416  ;  settled,  417. 

Indians,  American,  families  of,  4 ;  mounds 
built  by,  16  ;  inscriptions  made  by  (figured), 
44,  46  ;  ill-treatment  of,  109  ;  of  Florida  (fig 
ured),  117,  118  ;  their  superstitions,  131 ;  their 
warfare  (figured),  134  ;  found  gentle  by  first 
explorers,  169  ;  how  treated  by  English,  170, 
178;  by  French  and  Spanish,  122,  182;  by 
Dutch,  180;  purchases  from,  170;  sentiments 
of  Puritans  towards,  171,  175  ;  warfare  of,  in 
fluenced  by  English,  132,  133,  172;  its  influ 
ence  on  that  of  colonists,  173;  position  of 
women  among,  176;  women  at  first  respected 
by,  177  ;  outbreaks  encouraged  by  French, 
184;  converted  by  Rasle,  186  ;  their  opinion 
of  colonists,  189;  later  wars  with,  327. 

Institutions,  American,  origin  of,  214. 

Interglacial  period,  man  in,  25. 

Internal  improvements,  404,  406,  411,  418,  420. 

Intolerance  in  Maryland,  200;  in  Virginia,  2O2  ; 
in  Massachusetts,  203. 

Iroquois  Indians,  12,  13,  132,  134,  183. 

Irving,  Washington,  62,  64,  400,  402. 

Isabella,  Queen,  55,  62,  78. 

Italy,  influence  of,  on  American  discovery,  76. 

J- 

Jackson,  Andrew  :  his  character,  432  ;  causes 
of  his  popularity,  432  ;  Webster's  fears  of, 
434  ;  popular  views  of,  434;  portrait  of,  435  ; 
early  career  of,  437  ;  "reign"  of,  438  ;  first 
election  of,  440  ;  Jefferson's  distrust  of,  441 ; 
political  changes  made  by,  442  ;  Sullivan's 
opinion  of,  442  ;  inauguration  of,  444  ;  man 
ners  of,  444 ;  his  contest  with  Washington 
ladies,  448  ;  his  dealing  with  nullification, 
450;  his  re-election,  451;  his  contest  with 
the  United  States  Bank,  452  ;  also,  239,  396. 

Jackson,  Mrs.  Helen,  description  of  pueblo,  7. 

Jackson,  Dr.  W.  H.,  6. 

James  II.,  183. 

Japanese  and  American  flora,  24 ;  junks  cross 
ing  the  Pacific,  23,  24. 

Jasper,  Sergeant,  263. 

Jay,  Chief- justice  John,  treaty  of,  328,  331; 
also,  324,  333,  340,  343,  355,  361. 


INDEX. 


463 


Jay,  Mrs.  John,  312. 

Jefferson,  Thomas  :  his  election  as  Vice-presi 
dent,  332  ;  his  feeling  as  to  French  Revolu 
tion,  334,  335  ;  his  election  as  President,  343 ; 
his  portrait,  345  ;  his  inauguration,  346  ;  at 
tack  on,  in  Portfolio,  347  ;  charges  against, 
347  ;  his  house-keeping,  349  ;  his  re-election, 
355  ;  his  view  of  townships,  357  ;  his  char 
acter,  358  ;  his  friendship  with  Adams,  359  ; 
his  successors,  360 ;  his  aversion  to  commerce, 
373  ;  fclso,  234. 

Jeffrey,  Lord,  400. 

Jemison,  Mary,  177. 

Jesuit  Missions,  122,  125,  127. 

Johnson,  William,  434. 

Johnston,  Lady.     (See  Franks,  Rebecca.) 

Jones,  Captain  Paul,  291. 

Juvenal,  194. 

K. 

Kahn,  Peter,  224. 
Karlsefne,  39,  41. 
Kendalt,  Amos,  452. 
Kendall,  John,  147. 
Kenton,  Simon,  421. 
Kentucky,  resolutions  of  1799,  343  ;   admitted 

as  a  State,  353  ;  early  life  in,  327,  421. 
Kialarness,  39. 

Kieft,  Governor  Jacob,  167,  180. 
King,  Clarence,  415. 
"  King  Henry  VI.,"  play  of,  quoted,  88. 
King  Philip's  War,  176. 
King,  Rufus,  portrait  of,  401;    also,  306,  355, 

38o,  383- 

King  William's  War,  183. 
Kinglake,  A.  W.,  254. 
King's  Arms,  tearing  down  of,  in  Philadelphia 

(figured),  281. 
Kingsley,  Charles,  92. 
Kinney,  Mr.,  52. 
Kirke,  Colonel,  220. 
Knox,  General,  letters   from,  297,  304;    also, 

302,  310,  312,  328,  332,  395. 
Knox,  Mrs.  General,  310,  312,  323. 
Kohl,  J.  G.,  77,  143. 
Kortwright,  Miss,  395. 
Krossaness,  39. 
Krudener,  Baron,  449. 
Kuhn,  Dr.,  424. 

L. 
Lafayette,  G.  M.  de  (Marquis),  283,  286,  287, 

334- 
La  Hontan,  Baron,  quoted,  172,  183,  185. 


Landa,  D.  de,  19;  alphabet,  18. 

Lane,  Ralph,  138. 

Langbourne,  Major,  240. 

Lapham,  I.  A.,  cited,  26. 

La  Roche,  De,  121. 

La  Salle,  Robert  C.  dCjjJU, 

Laudonniere,  Rene  de,  88,  116. 

Las  Casas,  Bishop  de,  his  protest  against  cruel 
ty,  74  ;  also,  123. 

Lauzun,  Due  de,  289,  335. 

Lawrence,  Captain  James,  375. 

Lawyers,  rise  of,  in  colonies,  239. 

Laydon,  John,  149. 

League  of  four  colonies,  177. 

Le  Caron,  Pere,  123. 

Lee,  Ann,  199. 

Lee  family  (Marblehead,  Mass.),  238. 

Lee,  General  Charles,  257. 

Lee,  Richard  Henry,  227,  267,  268,  305  ;  son 
of,  267. 

Leif  the  Lucky,  38  ;  his  booths,  38,  39. 

Leifsbudir,  39. 

Leighton,  Caroline  C.,  415. 

Leisler,  Jacob,  222. 

Le  Jeune,  Pere,  125. 

Le  Moyne,  116,  117,  119. 

Leon,  Ponce  de,  portrait  of,  71  ;  his  voyage, 
71  ;  also,  143. 

Le  Plongeon,  Dr.,  2. 

Lescarbot,  125. 

Leverett,  Governor  John,  courageous  reply  of, 
217. 

Lewis  and  Clark's  expedition,  II,  350. 

Lewis,  Meriwether,  350. 

Lewis,  William  B.,  439. 

Lincoln,  Abraham,  327. 

Lincoln,  Governor  Levi,  444. 

Livingston,  Cora,  422. 

Livingston,  Edward,  450. 

Livingston,  Robert  R.,  268,  274,  275,  308,  407. 

Livingston,  the  brothers,  227. 

Locke,  John,  his  singular  plan  of  government, 

212. 

Lodge,  H.  C.,  quoted,  162. 

Lodge,  Thomas,  85. 

Longfellow,  H.  W.,  quoted,  97  ;  also,  236,  400. 

Long  Island,  battle  of,  284. 

Lorges,  Roselly  de,  64. 

Lossing,  B.  J.,  376. 

Louis  XV.,  223. 

Louisburg,  capture  of,  187,  223. 

Louisiana,  purchase  of,  354,  407  ;  admitted  as 

a  State,  379. 
Loundes,  William  J.,  379. 


464 


INDEX. 


Lovewell,  Captain  John,  174. 
Lowell,  John,  369,  371. 
Lubbock,  Sir  J.,  25. 
Lundy's  Lane,  battle  at,  377. 

M. 

Macaulay,  Lord,  201. 
Macon,  Nathaniel,  350. 
McDuffie,  George,  424. 
McKean,  Thomas,  recollections  of,  276 ;  letter 

from,  277  ;  also,  278,  314. 
Madison,  James :    his    election    as    President, 

358  ;  his  appearance,  361 ;  his  portrait,  363  ; 

Federalist  charges  against,  371 ;  his  aversion 

to   war,  371  ;    close   of   his   administration, 

379- 

Madison,  Mrs.  James,  361,  362,  365,  395. 

Magellan,  Ferdinand  de,  70. 

Magnus,  King,  35 . 

Mail-service,  404,  405. 

Maine,  forts  in,  184;  Indian  wars  in,  186  ;  ad 
mitted  as  a  State,  393. 

Maine  Historical  Society,  50. 

Major,  R.  H.,  77. 

Malbone,  Godfrey,  238. 

Mammoth  on  ivory,  25. 

Man  in  Interglacial  period,  25. 

Mandan  Indians,  12,  15. 

Manhattan  Island,  152,  170. 

Manning,  Cardinal,  200. 

Manufactures,  introduction  of,  195. 

Map  showing  advance  of  population,  416. 

Maps  (figured) :  Sigurd  Stephanius's,  50  ;  Da 
Vinci's,  66  ;  Schoner's  (globe),  67  ;  Cabot's, 
79 ;  Drake's,  95  ;  Smith's,  145,  148  ;  Or- 
telius's,  1 08. 

Marckland,  38,  50. 

Marietta,  O.,  15. 

Marion,  General  Francis,  263. 

Marlborough,  Duke  of,  186. 

Marquette,  Pere,  181. 

Marshall,  Chief-justice  John,  434. 

Marston,  John,  quoted,  146. 

Martin,  John,  147,  148. 

Martyr,  Peter.     (See  Anghiera.) 

Maryland  founded,  165  ;  religious  freedom  in, 
167,  199  ;  intolerance  in,  200  ;  education  in, 
201  ;  witchcraft  in,  208  ;  old  institutions  of, 
215  ;  manners  in,  235  ;  insurrections  in,  454. 

Mason,  George,  288. 

Mason,  Jeremiah,  441. 

Mason,  Mr.,  387. 

"  Massachusettensis,"  242. 

Massachusetts  Bay  Colony  founded,  158,  161  ; 


relations   with    Indians,  170 ;   toleration  in., 
197  ;  education  in,  201 ;  intolerance  in,  205. 

Massachusetts,  formed  by  union  with  Plymouth, 
213;  independent  spirit  of,  217;  charter  of, 
vacated,  220;  preparations  for  war  in,  144; 
circular  of  committee,  quoted,  249;  services 
of,  in  Revolution,  292  ;  Shays's  insurrection* 
in,  302  ;  services  of,  in  war  of  1812,  379. 

Massasoit,  172,  175. 

Masts  sent  by  Massachusetts  colony  to  Eng 
land,  218. 

Mather,  Rev.  Cotton,  portrait  of,  196;  fictitious 
letter  from,  206  ;  quoted,  175,  203,  208,  210; 
also,  195,  197,  204. 

Mather,  Rev.  Increase,  quoted,  171,  219. 

Mayas,  2,  4,  17,  19,  63  ;  alphabet  of,  18,  19;, 
sculptures  of,  22. 

Mayflower,  agreement  on  the,  156. 

Mechanic  arts,  introduction  of,  195. 

Medford,  Mass.,  settled,  162. 

Membertou,  126. 

Menendez,  Pedro,  119. 

Mercator's  charts,  56. 

Mercer,  General,  327. 

Mermaids,  56. 

Merry,  Mr.,  347,  349. 

Merry  Mount,  164. 

Mexico,  ancient,  10,  n,  13,  17  ;  modern,  76.. 

Miami  Indians,  the,  327. 

Michael,  Emperor,  30. 

Michigan  admitted  as  a  State,  453. 

Miller,  W.  J.,  44,  45. 

Mills,  Elijah  H.,  398. 

Milton,  John,  quoted,  106. 

Minuit,  Peter,  152,  167,  170. 

Missouri  admitted  as  a  State,  393. 

Missouri  Compromise,  393. 

Mitchell,  Professor  Henry,  cited,  49. 

Mobile,  Ala.,  settled,  182. 

Mohave  Indians,  12. 

Monocrats,  the,  329. 

Monroe  doctrine,  the,  403. 

Monroe,  James,  called  "James  II."  by  Josiah? 
Quincy,  360 ;  elected  President,  380 ;  his 
record,  381 ;  importance  of  his  tour,  381  ;  his- 
fear  of  extended  territory,  383  ;  his  portrait, 
385  ;  his  character  and  physique,  384  ;  his 
travels,  387  ;  his  policy,  389 ;  his  re-election 
all  but  unanimous,  394 ;  American  literature  / 
born  under  him,  398  ;  the  Monroe  doctrine,. 
403  ;  his  views  of  the  post-office,  404. 

Monroe,  Mrs.  James,  395. 

Montcalm,  General  de,  portrait  of,  190;  also,- 
189,  191. 


INDEX. 


465: 


Montezuma,  4,  n. 

"  Montezuma,"  a  nickname  for  Washington, 
332. 

"  Montezuma's  Dinner,"  Morgan's  essay  on,  4. 

Montgomery,  General  James,  263. 

Montreal  captured,  191. 

Monts,  Pierre  de,  121,  122,  141. 

Moon,  Thomas,  92. 

Morgan,  L.  H.,  n,  13,  17,  21,  23,  456. 

Morris,  Gouverneur,  349,  420. 

Morris,  Robert,  272. 

Morse,  John  T.,  Jr.,  quoted,  447. 

Morton,  Mrs.,  291,  326. 

Motte,  Lieutenant-colonel,  263. 

Moultrie,  General  William,  263. 

Mound  -  builders,  the,  2,  15;  village  of  (fig 
ured),  14. 

Mount  Desert  first  described,  129. 

Mount  Hope  Bay,  48,  49,  50. 

Moustier,  Comte  de,  312. 

Mullinger,  J.  B.,  194. 

N. 

Napoleon.     (See  Bonaparte.) 

Narrowing  influence  of  colonial  life,  197. 

Navarrete,  M.  F.  de,  62. 

Navy,  United  States,  first  Secretary  of,  342  ; 
battles  of,  291,  342,  356,  369,  374. 

Nechecolee  Indians,  12. 

Neill,  E.  D.,  200. 

Neutral  French,  the,  in  Acadia,  189. 

Neuville,  M.  Hyde  de,  396. 

Neuville,  Madame  de,  397. 

New  Amsterdam  founded,  152;  nationalities  in, 
153.  211. 

New  England  first  named,  144  ;  colonies  of, 
their  influence  on  reviving  Virginia  colony, 
158,  195. 

Newfoundland,  origin  of  name  of,  83. 

New  France,  Jesuits  in,  122  ;  also,  108,  182. 

New  Hampshire  settled,  174,  184;  independ 
ence  of,  213 ;  buildings  in,  233. 

Newhouse,  Sewall,  414. 

New  Jersey  settled,  152  ;  independence  of,  213  ; 
campaigns  in,  284. 

New  Mexico,  pueblos  of,  19  ;  Indian  inscrip 
tions  in,  44,  46. 

New  Netherlands,  name  changed,  165  ;  surren 
der  to  English,  181,  211. 

New  Orleans,  battle  of,  377,  438. 

New  Plymouth.     (See  Plymouth.) 

Newport,  Captain  Christopher,  146. 

Newport,  R.  L,  old  mill  at,  42  ;  figured,  43  ; 
French  in,  289. 


New  York  (city),  harbor  of,  144  ;  first  seat  of 
government,  309 ;  society  in,  310 ;  also,  see 
New  Amsterdam. 

New  York,  originally  New  Netherlands,  152, 
165,  168,  181  ;  governor  of,  quoted,  181  ;. 
transferred  to  English,  211;  revolt  of,  against 
Andros,  222  ;  British  army  in,  260,  263 ;  pop 
ulation  of,  in  1817,  388. 

Nez  Perce  Indians,  n. 

Nicholls,  Mr.,  81. 

Nichols,  B.  R.,  407. 

Nicolls,  General,  211. 

Nixon,  John,  280. 

Niza,  Fray  Marco  de,  10. 

North  Carolina  colonized,  98  ;  divided  from- 
South  Carolina,  213  ;  plans  a  fleet,  300 ;  in 
surrections  in,  454. 

North,  Lord,  288. 

Northern  colonies,  condition  of  labor  in,  239. 

Northmen,  their  lineage,  28  ;  their  habits,  28  ;. 
their  jewellery,  29 ;  their  heroism,  30 ;  their 
ships  described,  31  ;  their  ships  (figured),  27, 
32  ;  dress  of,  35  ;  precise  topography  of,  un 
known,  46 ;  no  authentic  remains  of,  46. 

North-west  Territory,  306. 

Nova  Scotia,  Northmen  in,  48. 

Nunez,  Alvar  (Cabeza  de  Vaca),  his  voyage,  72 ; 
also,  10,  i Si. 

Nunez,  Vasco  (Balboa),  portrait  of,  68  ;  his  dis 
covery  of  Pacific  Ocean,  69. 

O. 

Oglethorpe,  General  James,  225. 

Ohio,  mounds  of,  2,  15,  17,  19;  Company,  the,, 

307 ;  admitted  as  a  State,  354. 
Ohio  River,  early  life  on,  419. 
Old  English  seamen,  the,  75. 
Old  French  War,  the,  189. 
Old  mill  at  Newport,  42  ;  figured,  43  ;  the  same 

at  Chesterton,  England,  43  ;  figured,  44. 
O'Neil,  Peggy.     (See  Eaton,  Mrs.) 
Onondaga  Indians,  16. 
"Orders  in  Council,"  British,  355,  365. 
Ordinance  of  1787,  306. 
Orinoco,  the  river,  100. 
Ortelius,  maps  (figured),  108. 
Osceola,  453. 
Osgood,  J.  R.,  116. 
Ossoli,  Margaret  Fuller,  415. 
Otis,  C.  P.,  128. 
Otis,  H.  G.,  388. 
Otis,  James,  quoted,  223;  portrait  of,  223;  alscy 

229,  352. 
Otto,  M.,  297,  313. 


466 


INDEX. 


Ovid,  195. 

Oxenstiern,  Chancellor,  167. 

P. 
Pacific  Ocean,  seen  by  Balboa,  69 ;  by  Drake, 

91- 
Page,  John,  321. 
Paine,  Robert  Treat,  326,  342. 
Paine,  Thomas,  270,  271,  399. 
Palfrey,  J.  G.,  43- 
Parish,  Rev.  Daniel,  370. 
Parker,  Captain,  245. 
Parker,  Professor  Joel,  240. 
Parkman,  Francis,  quoted,  121,  125,  181,  198; 

cited,  119,  126;  not  quite  just  to  the  Puri 
tans,  198. 
Parties,  enmity  between,  371 ;   changes  in,  379, 

390 ;  disappearance  of,  439. 
Parton,  James,  275,  278,  360,  437. 
Pasqualigo,  Lorenzo,  80,  81. 
Peace  of  Paris,  169,  191  ;  of  Ryswick,  185  ;  of 

Utrecht,  186. 
Penn,  William,  his   arrival,  213  ;    his   relations 

with  Indians,  213;  also,  174,  213,  222. 
Pennsylvania,  settlement  of,  213;   relations  of 

Delaware  with,  213,  225;  society  in,  282,  323; 

campaigns  in,  286  ;  but  one  legislative  body 

in,  298. 

Pentucket  (Haverhill)  attacked,  185. 
Pepperrell,  Sir  William,  187  ;  portrait  of,  188. 
Pequot  War,  the,  169,  175. 
Percy,  Lord,  247,  248. 
Perez,  Juan,  71. 
Perkins,  J.  H.,  422. 
Perry,  Commodore  O.  H.,  375. 
Peter  Martyr,  n,  59. 
Peter,  Mrs.,  422. 
Peters,  Dr.,  202. 
Peters,  John,  238. 
Peyster,  Mr.  De,  376. 
Philadelphia,  the  seat  of  government,  230,  322  ; 

life  in,  323,  324,  325  ;  population  of,  in  1817, 

388. 

Philip  II.  of  Spain,  85,  87,  88,  90,  104. 
Philip,  King  (Indian),  death  of  (figured),  179 ; 

also,  169,  170,  171,  176,  178,  180,  183,  218. 
Philoponus,  57. 
Phips,  Sir  William,  185,  187. 
Physique  of  Americans  changed,  217. 
Pickering,  Timothy,  306,  369. 
Pierria,  Albert  de  la,  116. 
Pilgrims  (Plymouth),  landing  of,  158  ;  visit  to 

shore  (figured),  159. 
"  Pilgrims  of  St.  Mary's,"  the,  165. 


Pinckney,  Charles  C.,  320,  342,  343,  355,  358 

Pinkney,  William,  374. 

Pioneers,  early  frontier,  421. 

Pitcairn,  General,  245. 

Pitt,  William,  191,  241,  242. 

Pizarro,  Francisco,  70,  73. 

Plastowe,  Josias,  170. 

Pliny,  194. 

Plutarch,  194. 

Plymouth  colony  founded,  153 ;  compact  of, 
156  ;  relations  of,  with  Indians,  170,  175  ;  tol 
eration  in,  197;  merged  in  Massachusetts,  213. 

Pocahontas,  143. 

Point  Comfort  first  named,  147. 

Polo,  Marco,  55. 

Font-Grave,  M.  de,  128. 

Pontiac,  conspiracy  of,  191. 

Poole,  W.  F.,  207,  209. 

Poor,  General  Enoch,  253. 

Popham  colony,  the,  141,  154. 

Popham,  George,  142. 

Popham,  Sir  John,  141,  142. 

Population  :  of  colonies,  225  ;  of  New  York  in 
1787,  309;  of  cities  in  1817,  388;  increase  in, 
406;  Madison's  estimate  of,  322;  advance  of, 
414,  415;  of  United  States  in  1830,  453. 

Port  Bill,  Boston,  229. 

Port  Royal,  N.  S.,  taken,  185. 

Port  Royal  Harbor  (S.  C.)  first  described,  116. 

"  Portia."     (See  Adams,  Abigail.) 

Portugal  and  Spain,  possessions  of,  in  the  New 
World,  75,  108. 

Pott,  Dr.,  202. 

Potter,  Elisha,  423. 

Powhatan  (figured),  144  ;  also,  139,  143. 

Preble,  Judge,  441. 

Prescott,  General,  259. 

Prescott,  W.  H.,  4. 

Prideaux,  General  John,  19 1. 

Princeton,  defeat  of  Cornwallis  at,  285. 

Pring,  Martin,  140,  141. 

Printz,  John,  168. 

Protestant  colonies,  French,  115,  116,  118,  120. 

Provincial  life  introduced,  220,  222. 

Ptolemy,  66. 

Public  men  usually  criticised  with  justice,  442. 

Pueblos,  3,  5,  7,  9,  10,  12.  (Special)  Acoma, 
8  ;  Bonito,  6  ;  Chacos,  19  ;  High  Bank,  17  ; 
Hungo  Pavie  (figured),  5,  6;  Moqui,  10 ; 
Pintado  (figured),  2,  3  ;  San  Juan,  7  ;  Taos 
(figured),  8  ;  Zuni,  8. 

Pulaski,  Count,  286. 

Puritans,  numbers  of,  164 ;  sacrifices  of,  192  ; 
ballads  concerning,  193;  out-door  life  of ,  193; 


INDEX. 


467 


social  and  educational  character,  194;  amuse 
ments  of,  195  ;  injustice  done  to,  198;  pro 
portion  of  educated  men,  202. 

Putnam,  F.  W.,  5,  15. 

Putnam,  General  Israel,  252,  259,  284. 

Putnam,  General  Rufus,  306. 

Q- 

Quakers,  the,  in  Rhode  Island,  199 ;  in  Mary 
land  and  Virginia,  202  ;  in  Massachusetts, 
204 ;  objections  to,  204 ;  defences  of,  204 ; 
exhorter  (figured),  205. 

Quebec,  unsuccessful  siege  of,  185;  fall  of,  191. 

Queen  Anne's  War,  185. 

Quincy,  Josiah  (Member  of  Congress),  311,  360, 
362,  365,  380. 

Quincy,  Josiah  (junior),  recollections  of,  422, 
444,  447  ;  also,  423. 

Quincy,  Mrs.  Josiah  (senior),  234,  288,  291,  349, 
361,  362,  373^402. 

R. 

Rafn,  Professor,  28,  41,  42,  43,  47,  48,  49,  51. 

Raleigh,  Sir  Walter,  97,  98,  101,  104,  105,  106, 
137,  138,  140,  141,  143,  158,  168. 

Raleigh,  Va.,  138. 

Ramusio,  109. 

Randolph,  Edmund,  331. 

Randolph,  Edward,  183,  218,  223. 

Randolph,  John,  picture  of,  397  ;  character  of, 
398;  quoted,  454;  also,  312,  336,  393,  396, 
428. 

Randolph,  Miss,  398. 

Rask,  Professor,  48. 

Rasle,  Pere  (Father),  fac-simile  from  his  glos 
sary,  186  ;  also,  174,  186. 

Ratcliffe,  John,  146,  148. 

Reed,  General  Joseph,  264,  272,  285. 

Republican  government,  distrust  of,  293,  352. 

Republican  party.     (See  Democratic  party.) 

Revere,  Paul,  244. 

Revolutionary  War,  battles  in,  at  Lexington, 
245;  of  Concord,  245;  taking  of  Ticonderoga, 
251;  of  Bunker  Hill,  256;  at  Quebec,  263; 
defence  of  Fort  Moultrie,  263  ;  at  Long  Isl 
and,  284 ;  at  Fort  Washington,  284 ;  at  Tren 
ton,  285  ;  at  Princeton,  285  ;  at  Brandywine, 
286;  at  Germantown,  286;  at  Bennington, 
287;  at  Saratoga,  287;  at  Yorktown,  291;  of 
General  Greene,  291;  statistics  of  war,  244, 
285,  292,  293. 

Rhode  Island,  purchase  of,  171  ;  toleration  in, 
199  ;  education  in,  201  ;  French  army  in, 
289. 


|  Ribaut,  Jean,  his    landing,  figured,  115  ;    also, 

117,  118,  140,  211. 
Richmond,  Duke  of,  288. 
Riedesel,  Baroness,  238. 
Riedesel,  General,  239. 
Right  of  search,  British,  355,  366. 
Roads  and  canals,  opening  of,  411,  417,  420. 
Robinson,  John,  154,  156. 
Robinson,  Rowland,  237. 
Rochambeau,  Comte  de,  291,  322. 
Rochester,  N.  Y.,  415. 
Rodney,  Caesar,  272,  276,  277. 
Rogers,  Samuel,  62. 
Rolfe,  John,  149. 
Ross,  General,  375,  376,  377. 
Roxbury,  Mass.,  settled,  162. 
Rule,  Margaret,  210. 
Rupert,  Prince,  256. 
Rush,  Richard,  412,  441. 
Russell,  Mrs.  Jonathan,  397. 
Rutledge,  Edward,  268,  273. 

S. 

Sac  Indians,  12. 

Sagadehoc  River  (Kennebec),  141. 
Saguenay,  in. 
St.  Asaph's,  Bishop  of,  283. 
St.  Augustine,  Fla.,  119. 
St.  Castin's  War,  183. 
St.  Clair,  General,  327. 

St.  John,  Henry  (Viscount  Bolingbroke),  186. 
St.  John's  River  explored,  116. 
St.  Lawrence  River  explored  by  Cartier,  108, 

no. 

St.  Louis,  Mo.,  388. 
St.  Simon's  Island,  Ga.,  i. 
Salem,   Mass.,  settlement    of,  161  ;   witchcraft 

at,  208;  old  usages  of,  214. 
Sallust,  194. 
Sanchez,  Roderigo,  61, 
Sanctuary,  land  of  the,  167. 
San  Francisco,  Cal.,  96. 

San  Juan  de  Ulloa,  sea-fight  at  (figured),  89. 
Santander,  Dr.  Pedro,  122. 
Saratoga,    N.   Y.,   victory    at,   287;    surrender 

of  Burgoyne  at,  287. 
Sardinian  impressions  of  Columbus,  52. 
Sargasso  Sea,  the,  58. 
Sassafras,  trade  in,  140. 
Savonarola,  Girolamo,  199. 
Scalps  taken  by  English,  173. 
Schenectady,   Indian   massacre   at,    184 ;    also, 

413. 
Schoner,  Johann,  globe  of,  67. 


468 


INDEX. 


Schuyler,  General  Philip,  259. 

Schuyler  mansion  at  Albany,  238. 

Scientific  surveys,  418. 

Scott,  General  Winfield,  450. 

Seamen,  old  English,  75. 

Sea  of  Darkness,  the,  56. 

Second  generation  in  America,  the,  192. 

Sedgwick,  Catharine,  350. 

Sedgwick,  Mrs.  Theodore,  323. 

Selectmen,  origin  of,  240. 

Seminole  War,  453. 

Seven  Bishops,  the,  10. 

Seven  Cities,  the,  10,  105. 

Sewall,  Samuel,  portrait  of,  208  ;  his  share  in 
witchcraft  trials,  208. 

Shakespeare,  William,  quoted,  88,  106,  252. 

Shays,  Daniel,  302,  330. 

Shepard,  Rev.  Thomas,  195. 

Sherman,  Roger,  268,  274,  275. 

Sherwood,  Grace,  208. 

Shirley,  Governor,  187,  259. 

Sidney,  Sir  Philip,  101. 

Simpson,  Lieutenant  J.  H.,  3,  6,  44. 

Skelton,  Rev.  John,  162,  195. 

Skraelings,  the,  39,  40 ;  not  Indians,  49. 

Slafter,  E.  F.,  41,  128,  132. 

Slavery  first  introduced  at  St.  Augustine,  119; 
in  Virginia,  144,  240.;  influence  of,  in  North 
ern  colonies,  235,  240;  in  Southern  colonies, 
239;  discussioiTof,  350,  393,  454,  455. 

Slave-trade,  the,  85,  87,  88  ;  prohibited,  358. 

Smith,  Buckingham,  73. 

Smith,  Chief-justice  and  Mrs.,  291. 

Smith,  Captain  John,  portrait  of,  142 ;  his  ro 
mantic  spirit,  143  ;  his  descriptions,  143  ;  his 
map,  144,  145,  148  ;  quoted,  138,  147,  150, 
172;  cited,  153,  154;  also,  139,  143,  145,  147, 
148,  149,  151,  152,  165,  170. 

Smith,  Colonel,  244,  247. 

Smith,  Samuel  H.,  347. 

Smith,  Sydney,  400,  451. 

Snorri,  40. 

Snorri  Sturleson,  30. 

Society,  American,  manners  in,  309,  310,  313, 
314,  349,  361,  362,  395,  396,  397,  422,  423, 
448. 
_Soto,  F.  de,  734  122,  182. 

Soutn  Carolina,  separated  from  North  Carolina, 
213;  old  institutions  of,  215;  State  Constitu 
tion  of,  294 ;  nullification  in,  450. 

Southcote,  Joanna,  199. 

Spain  and  Portugal,  possessions  of,  in  the  New 
World,  75,  108. 

Spain,  exaggerations  of  chroniclers  of,  n;  big 


otry  of,  122,  123;  "Requisitions"  of,  122 

cruelty  of,  128. 
Spanish  Armada,  104. 
Sparke,  John,  85. 
Spring  Creek,  Tenn.,  15. 
Squaw  sachem,  the,  176. 
Squier,  E.  G.,  26. 
Stackelburg,  Baron,  423. 
Stadacone  (Quebec),  112. 
Stamp  Act,  the,  228. 
Standish,  Miles,  157,  158,  173,  195,  197. 
Stark,  General  John,  287. 
Starving  time,  the,  149. 
States  Rights  doctrines,  316,  380,  408, 
States,  union  of,  295. 
Steamboats,  introduction  of,  420. 
Stephanius,  Sigurd,  50. 
Stephens,  J.  L.,  4,  12. 
Steuben,  Baron,  286. 
Stevenson,  Mary,  241. 
Stiles,  Rev.  Ezra,  quoted,  231,  305. 
Stockton,  Chief-justice,  269. 
Storrs,  W.  L. ,  424. 
Story,  Judge  Joseph,  372,  434. 
Story,  Thomas,  defends  Quaker  nakedness,  205. 
Stoughton,  Lieutenant-governor,  164. 
Strachey,  William,  139. 

Stuyvesant,  Peter,  tearing  letter  (figured),  212. 
Succession,  War  of  the  Spanish,  185. 
Sullivan,  General,  263. 
Sullivan,  William,  cited,  311,  312,  344  ;  quoted, 

314,  361,  372,  377,  442,  455  ;  also,  349. 
Sumner,  Charles,  403. 

Sumner,  Professor  W.  G.,  239,  439,  442,  453. 
Swedish  colony  in  Delaware,  167,  171,  211. 
Sweinke,  his  defiance,  35. 
Swift,  General  Joseph  G.,  387. 

T. 

Tadoussac,  early  fur  trade  at,  121. 
Talleyrand-Perigord,  Prince  de,  324,  341,  342.. 
Taney,  Chief-justice  Roger  B.,  452. 
Tariff,  the,  350,  379,  389. 
Taylor,  Jeremy,  216. 
Tecumseh,  375. 
Temple,  Sir  John,  313. 
Tennessee,  mounds  of,  15;  admitted  as  a  State. 

354  ;  emigrants  to,  413. 
Tennyson,  Alfred,  quoted,  129. 
Terence,  194,  195. 

Territory,  National,  increase  of,  354,  383. 
Thacher,  Oxenbridge,  227,  259. 
Thacher,  Rev.  Peter,  bowling-alley  of,  195. 
Thirkill,  Launcelot,  82. 


INDEX. 


469 


Thomas,  General,  252. 

Thompson,  John,  275. 

Thomson,  Charles,  277. 

Thornton,  Colonel  Matthew,  277. 

Thorwald,  38,  51. 

Thorwaldsen,  A.  B.,  40. 

Thury,  Pere,  184. 

Ticknor,  George,  270. 

Ticonderoga,  capture  of,  191. 

Titles  of  the  President,  314. 

Tobacco,  151. 

Tompkins,  Daniel  D.,  394. 

Topila,  carved  face  from  (figured),  22. 

Torfoeus,  41,  48,  50. 

Tory  Row,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  238. 

Town  government,  origin  of,  239. 

Tracy,  Senator,  324. 

Trades,  introduction  of,  195. 

Treat,  Robert,  222. 

Treaty:  of  Ryswick,  185  ;  of  Utrecht,  186;  of 

Paris,  292  ;  Jay's,  331;  with  Tripoli,  358  ;  of 

Ghent,  378. 

Trenton,  surprise  of  Hessians  at,  285. 
Triana,  Rodrigo  de,  62. 
Tripoli,  treaty  with,  358. 
Trist,  N.  P.,  451. 
Truxton,  Commodore,  342. 
Tudor,  William,  256. 

Tunnachemootoolt,  village  of  (figured),  n. 
Turner,  J.  M.  W.,  62. 
Turner,  Nat.,  454. 
Tylor,  E.  B.,  13,  19. 
Tyrker,  38. 

U. 

Underbill,  Captain  John,  175. 

United  States  :  first  organized  as  a  confedera 
tion,  296  ;  becomes  a  nation,  304  ;  Western 
lands  of,  306  ;  inauguration  of  government 
of,  308  ;  social  condition  of,  309  ;  division  of 
parties  in,  316,  329,  343  ;  appointment  of  of 
ficials  in,  320 ;  adopts  Washington  as  the  seat 
of  government,  322  ;  early  political  violence 
in,  328,  332,  351,  371  ;  negotiations  with 
Prance,  329,  331.  340;  treaty  with  England, 
331;  influence  of  French  Revolution  on,  333; 
great  extension  of  territory  of,  354;  war  with 
England  (1812),  365  ;  era  of  good  feeling  in, 
381 ;  great  Western  march  of  population  of, 
406  ;  early  maps  of,  412  ;  centre  of  population 
of,  416  ;  wars  with  Indian  tribes  of,  453  ;  rise 
of  antislavery  agitation  in,  453. 

Upham,  C.  W.,  193. 

Usselinx,  William,  167. 


Utica,  N.  Y.,  413. 
Uxmal,  12,  19. 


V. 


Valentine,  Dr.,  19. 

Valley  Forge,  revolutionary  army  at,  286. 

Van  Buren,  Martin,  398. 

Van  Rensselaer,  Catherine,  422. 

Varangian  guard,  the,  29. 

Varnhagen,  F.  A.  de,  64,  65. 

Vassall  family,  237,  238. 

Vaughan,  Mr.,  449. 

Vergennes,  M.  de,  287,  297. 

Vermont  admitted  as  a  State,  353. 

Verrazzano,  his  letters,  109  ;  also,  76,  84,  108, 
no. 

Vespucci,  Amerigo,  new  views  concerning,  64, 
65 ;  also,  68,  70,  76,  79. 

Vikings,  visit  of  the,  27. 

Villegagnon,  M.  de,  115. 

Vinci,  Leonardo  da,  67. 

Vinland,  36,  41,  48,  50;  not  identified,  51. 

Virgil,  195. 

Virginia,  settlement  of,  138  ;  starvation  in,  149; 
young  women  emigrants  to  (figured),  150;  In 
dian  massacres  in,  175,  178,  190;  education 
in,  201 ;  intolerance  in,  2O2 ;  witchcraft  in, 
208 ;  House  of  Burgesses,  239 ;  resolutions 
of  1798,  343;  insurrections  in,  454. 

Volney,  C.  F.  C.,  Count  de,  325. 

Voltaire,  F.  M.  A.  de,  223. 

Von  Hoist,  Dr.,  431,  438. 

Voyageurs,  the  French,  108,  126,  135. 

W. 

Wadsworth,  William,  219. 

Waldsee-Miiller,  Martin,  65,  66. 

Walker,  Sir  Hovenden,  186. 

Wampanoag  Indians,  44. 

Wamsutta,  176. 

War  of  1812,  opposition  to,  372,  373,  374;  bat 
tles  during,  375. 

War :  the  Hundred  Years',  169  ;  of  the  Spanish 
Succession,  185  ;  of  the  Austrian  Succession, 
187  ;  the  Revolutionary  (see  Revolution)  ;  the 
Seminole,  453. 

Warbeck,  Perkin,  82. 

Ward,  General  A.,  253. 

Wardwell,  Lydia,  204. 

Warner,  Seth,  252,  253. 

Warren,  Dr.  Joseph,  247,  248,  249,  250,  254, 
258. 

Warren,  General  James,  352. 

Warren,  Mrs.  Mercy,  spicy  correspondence 
with  John  Adams,  351;  portrait  of,  353. 


4/0 


INDEX. 


Warville,  Brissot  de,  322. 

Washington  City  :  adopted  as  the  seat  of  gov 
ernment,  322  ;  British  capture  of,  376  ;  so 
ciety  in,  313,  314,  349'  361,  362,  395,  396> 
397,  422,  423,  448  ;  inhabitants  of,  398,  423. 

Washington,  George,  his  portrait  (frontispiece); 
his  early  Western  expedition,  189;  his  report 
on  Indian  outrages,  190 ;  takes  command  of 
Continental  army,  257;  his  opinion  of  the 
army,  257  ;  his  views  of  discipline,  259  ; 
forces  evacuation  of  Boston,  260 ;  recognizes 
need  of  independence,  266 ;  his  promulga 
tion  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence, 
283  ;  his  victories,  285  ;  his  anxieties,  285  ; 
despondent  at  last,  288;  his  dancing  at  New 
port,  290  ;  orders  cessation  of  hostilities,  292  ; 
his  distrust  of  the  Confederation,  296,  301 ; 
his  breakfast  with  Jefferson,  298  ;  his  release 
of  prisoners  from  jail,  302  ;  letter  of  Knox 
to,  quoted,  304;  his  inauguration  as  Presi 
dent,  308 ;  his  administration,  309 ;  his  re 
ceptions,  313;  his  cabinet,  315;  his  re-elec 
tion,  326;  abuse  of  him,  331,  332;  letter  of 
Jefferson  to,  359;  his  Farewell  Address,  371; 
proposes  canals,  420. 

Washington,  Mrs.  George,  310,  313,  326. 

WTatertown,  Mass.,  settled,  162. 

Wayne,  Anthony,  327. 

Webb,  Dr.  T.  A.,  42,  43. 

Webster,  Daniel,  quoted,  274,  434,  443,  4447 
portrait  of,  445  ;  also,  270,  274,  373,  398, 
402,  422,  428,  440,  441. 

Webster,  Mrs.  Daniel,  422,  423,  424. 

Webster,  Ezekiel,  440. 

Weetamo,  176. 

Welch,  Dr.,  248. 

Welde,  Rev.  Thomas,  194. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  396. 

Wentworth  house  in  Portsmouth,  N.  H.,  238. 

West,  Captain,  170. 

Western  States,  early  condition  of,  407,  413  ; 
change  in,  413. 

Wheatley,  Phillis,  326. 

Wheeling,  Va.,  413. 

Whiskey  Insurrection,  330. 

White,  Father,  166. 

White,  John,  138,  139. 

\Vhite,  Mrs.  Florida,  422. 


White  House,  early  life  in,  340,  349,  361,  424. 

White  Man's  Land,  41. 

Whitney,  Professor  J.  D.,  26. 

\Vhittier,  J.  G.,  204,  205,  400,  402. 

Wilkinson,  Jemima,  199. 

William,  King,  183,  222. 

Williams,  Rev.  John,  185. 

Williams,  Roger,  banishment  of,  164  ;  purchase 

of  Rhode  Island  by,  171 ;  toleration  of,  198 ; 

quoted,  199 ;  also,  195,  202. 
Wilson,  Deborah,  204. 
Wilson,  James,  268. 
Wingate,  Paine,  235. 
Wingfield,  E.  M.,  147. 
Winslow,  Josiah,  quoted,  175  ;   also,  170,  176* 

195- 
Winsor,  J.,  "  Narrative  and  Critical  History  of 

America"  quoted,  151. 
Winthrop,  Governor  John   (of   Mass.),  arrival 

of,  162;  portrait  of,  163,  journal  of,  cited, 

207;  also,  193,  195,  197. 

Winthrop,  Governor  John  (of  Connecticut),  185. 
Winthrop,  Hannah,  245. 
Wirt,  William,  451. 
Wirt,  Mrs.  William,  422. 
Witch,  arrest  of  a  (figured),  209. 
Witchcraft :   in  Europe,  206 ;  in  Connecticut, 

207;  in  Maryland,  Virginia,  New  York,  Mas- 

, sachusetts,  208. 

Witherspoon,  Dr.,  269. 

Wolcott,  Oliver,  313,  329. 

Wolcott,  Mrs.  Oliver,  323. 

Wolfe,  General  James,  portrait  of,  191. 

Wood's  Roll,  48. 

Wright,  Colonel  C.  D.,  194. 

Wyatt,  Hant,  202. 

Wythe,  George,  227. 

X. 

X,  Y,  Z  correspondence,  341. 

Y. 

Yeomen  of  New  England  described,  239. 
Yucatan,  2,  5, 19,  21;  sculptures  from  (figured), 

21,   22. 

Z. 

Zuazo,  ii. 

Zubly,  Rev.  J.  J.,  293. 


THE    END. 


RETURN  TO  the  circulation  desk  of  any 
University  of  California  Library 

or  to  the 

NORTHERN  REGIONAL  LIBRARY  FACILITY 
Bldg.  400,  Richmond  Field  Station 
University  of  California 
Richmond,  CA  94804-4698 

ALL  BOOKS  MAY  BE  RECALLED  AFTER  7  DAYS 

•  2-month  loans  may  be  renewed  by  calling 
(510)642-6753 

•  1-year  loans  may  be  recharged  by  bringing 
books  to  NRLF 

•  Renewals  and  recharges  may  be  made  4 
days  prior  to  due  date. 

DUE  AS  STAMPED  BELOW 


APR  1  7  2001 


12,000(11/95) 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


